“OBSTRUCT LASTING PEACE”
The sanctions come as Lebanon is forming a military delegation for security talks with Israel at the Pentagon on May 29, a step that was agreed in the latest round of direct talks earlier this month.
A fourth round of negotiations is planned for June.
Hezbollah is opposed to the talks and refuses to surrender its weapons as the government demands.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday they “will continue to take action against officials who have infiltrated the Lebanese government”, insisting Hezbollah must be “disarmed”.
Hezbollah called the sanctions “an attempt to intimidate the free Lebanese people in order to bolster the Zionist aggression against our country”.
Hezbollah lawmakers said the sanctions “will have no practical effect”, though the group faces internal pressure following two wars with Israel that caused widespread destruction and pushed Lebanon to negotiate with Israel.
Once a dominant political force, Hezbollah was weakened by a 2023-2024 war with Israel.
The latest war has killed more than 3,000 people and displaced more than a million.
“The sanctions are a continuation of the tightening of the noose around Hezbollah, an attempt to separate it from the state after it managed, over the past 20 years… to embed many elements” in it, military expert Riad Kahwaji told AFP.
“These sanctions show today that no party is immune, regardless of whether it is inside or outside state institutions.”
Israel meanwhile continues to strike Lebanon despite a truce in place since Apr 17.
Israeli strikes killed at least 10 people on Friday, including six rescuers, according to the Lebanese health ministry.