World News | US Sanctions Lebanese Environmental Group Accused of Being an Arm of Hezbollah

Washington, Aug 16 (AP) The United States imposed sanctions Wednesday on a Lebanese environmental organisation accused of being an arm of the militant group Hezbollah.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Green Without Borders and its leader, Zouher Nahli, for allegedly providing support and cover to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon along the “Blue Line” between Lebanon and Israel “while operating under the guise of environmental activism.”

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The Treasury says Green Without Border's outposts are manned by Hezbollah operatives, serving as cover for the militant group's warehouses and munitions tunnels.

Workers at the outposts have allegedly prevent UN peacekeepers in Lebanon from accessing areas which the United Nations has authority to access.

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Green Without Border is a nongovernmental organisation established in 2013. It says it aims to protect Lebanon's green areas and plant trees.

“We are not an arm for anyone,” Nahli told The Associated Press in January. “We as an environmental association work for all the people and we are not politicised.”

Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the State Department, said the US took action “as part of our efforts to prevent and disrupt financial and other support for terrorist attacks in Lebanon, Israel, and around the world.”

Brian E. Nelson, the Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the US rejects Hezbollah's “cynical efforts to cloak its destabilising terrorist activities with false environmentalism.” (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)