US blacklists three key Hezbollah figures

Washington, July 10 (IANS) US Treasury announced on Tuesday that it has slapped sanctions on three key Hezbollah figures, including two members of Lebanese Parliament.The Treasury said in a statement that the designated individuals are Amin Sherri and Muhammad Hasan Ra'd, both members of the country's Parliament, and Hezbollah security official Wafiq Safa, the Xinhua news agency reported.The Treasury accused them of "leveraging their privileged positions to facilitate Hizballah's (Hezbollah's) malign agenda and do Iran's bidding," according to the statement.All property and interests in property of those sanctioned targets that were subject to US jurisdiction would be blocked, and US persons were generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.Hezbollah was designated by the US State Department as a terrorist group in October 2001.
--IANS rs