27 Jun 14. New legislation that would establish a range of new sanctions against Hezbollah – and, crucially, against Lebanese and even non-Lebanese entities that facilitate the Iran-backed terror group’s illicit financial activities – unanimously passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday by voice vote, just a few months after news leaked that lawmakers were mulling such measures. That the bill would include language establishing so-called third party sanctions, under which banks in Lebanon and other nations would face penalties for knowingly participating in transactions boosting Hezbollah’s efforts, had been revealed in early April. The bipartisan legislation had originally been co-sponsored by Reps. Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Brad Schneider (D-IL), and Meadows had taken to Twitter last month to announce that it had garnered 225 co-sponsors, guaranteeing its passage by the full chamber. The language also targets satellite and other broadcasters that knowingly transmit content from Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV, which the U.S. has formally considered a terrorist entity since 2004. The developments were picked up by Lebanon’s Daily Star, which contextualized it against the backdrop of other recent sanctions, including an August announcement by Washington “that it was sanctioning Hezbollah over its support for the Syrian regime” and a September move to impose “further financial sanctions against Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah for giving assistance to Assad.” The terror group has been subject to increasingly vocal criticism, both inside Lebanon and abroad, for its seeming willingness to endanger the integrity of the Lebanese financial system in order to carry out global campaigns seen as being done at Iran’s behest. Hezbollah had insisted for decades that it was an indigenous Lebanese group promoting Lebanese interests, a stance that had occasionally found sympathy in corners of the Western foreign policy establishment. Some Western diplomats had sought to shield the group from international censure by arguing that it was an integral and stabilizing participant in Lebanese politics. Foundation for Defense of Democracies Research Fellow Tony Badran among others had ridiculed the claim, in no small part due to the degree to which Hezbollah’s illicit financial activities – which lean heavily on Lebanese banks – endanger those institutions. (Source: theisraelproject.org)
27 Jun 14. Following Wednesday reports that Tehran is pouring assets into Iraq, analysts are raising concerns that Iranian efforts in the country, which in recent weeks has seen Sunni extremists overtake portions of the country, could complicate U.S. moves aimed at restabilizing the Iraq. Ephraim Kam, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies and a former colonel in colonel in the research division of IDF Military Intelligence, on Thursday warned that increased Iranian involvement will harden sectarian divisions in the country, amid the ongoing seizure of Iraqi territory by Sunni fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). Reuel Marc Gerecht, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, predicted that Tehran will “fan the flames of sectarian war in both Syria and Iraq… [and] reflexively try to find common ground with jihadists in anti-American rhetoric.” Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs analyst Pinhas Inbari emphasized that – more broadly – the Iranians and Americans are fundamentally split on the strategic level, contrasting Washington’s efforts to establish a robust Iraqi central government with the Iranian preference for “Iraq to become a subservient client state.” (Source: theisraelproject.org)
26 Jun 14. French Minister’s Visit to India To Feature Talks on Rafale Sale. Discussions to resolve contract differences on India’s planned purchase of Dassault Rafale fighters for its $12bn Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) program are likely to top the agenda when French Foreign