Hezbollah: US Sanctions Won’t Shake Resistance or Lebanon’s Right to Defend Its Sovereignty

Translated by Al-Ahed News, Hezbollah Media Relations

Hezbollah responded to the latest US Treasury and State Department statements, rejecting Washington’s claims regarding its relationship with the Quds Force and describing the renewed sanctions as part of a broader campaign against the Resistance, its community and its supporters.

The statement also reaffirmed Hezbollah’s ties with Iran and stressed that sanctions would not alter its commitment to Lebanon’s right to resist and defend its sovereignty.

Hezbollah issued the following statement:

Yesterday, the US administration, through the Treasury and State Departments, came forward with the claim that Hezbollah is under the control of the Quds Force, using it to justify placing us once again on its sanctions list. In reality, this decision is nothing more than another link in the long-standing policy pursued by successive US administrations against the Resistance, its community, its environment and its supporters, aimed at politically, financially and security-wise besieging and pressuring them. Its ultimate purpose is to safeguard the security of the “Israeli” enemy, entrench its occupation of southern Lebanon and clear the way for its expansionist projects and ambitions across the region.

This old policy in a new form, issued once again by the US Treasury, confirms that the US administration, which has long used sanctions as a tool to impose its will and dominance on nations and peoples, continues to deal with Lebanon from a position of guardianship. Instead of compelling the “Israeli” enemy to withdraw from southern Lebanon, halt its attacks, stop blowing up homes, bulldozing farmland and killing Lebanese people, Washington chooses to tighten the siege on the Lebanese and strip Lebanon of every source of strength. In doing so, it is seeking to create internal unrest and divert the course of confrontation away from the “Israeli” enemy.

Hezbollah does not need anyone to certify its Lebanese identity or patriotism. The sacrifices of thousands of martyrs who gave their lives for Lebanon and its people, along with our long history of resistance, confronting occupation and defending our land and sovereignty, are the truest testimony to where we stand. Our close and brotherly relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran is one we value and take pride in, because Iran stood by Lebanon, supported it and helped it liberate its land and reclaim its sovereignty and rights. It remained at Lebanon’s side through every critical moment and crisis and was among the first countries to contribute to rebuilding what the “Israeli” aggression destroyed during the July 2006 war.

The US administration has neither the moral nor the legal standing to classify others or hand out certificates of patriotism. Its bloody and criminal record, from Vietnam to Afghanistan and Iraq, its unlimited support for the genocide in Gaza, its cover for the crimes of the “Israeli” enemy and for the killing and destruction carried out in Lebanon, Yemen and Syria, its aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and its repeated trampling of international laws and conventions and disregard for basic human and moral values, have placed it at the forefront of global terrorism. It has no right to appoint itself judge over the world and its peoples.

None of these unjust sanctions or designations will make us abandon our commitment to the choice of resistance or to the right of Lebanon and the Lebanese people to defend their land, sovereignty and resources. Nor will they change the fact that the Resistance has been, remains and will remain an integral part of Lebanon’s history, its present and its future.