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OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 20, 2007
Contact:
Molly Millerwise (202) 622-2960
Treasury Designates Hizballah's
Construction Arm
The U.S. Department of the Treasury
today designated Jihad al-Bina, a Lebanon-based
construction company formed and operated by Hizballah.
Jihad al-Bina receives direct funding from Iran, is run
by Hizballah members, and is overseen by Hizballah's
Shura Council, at the head of which sits Hizballah
Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.
"Hizballah operates Jihad al-Bina for
its own construction needs as well as to attract popular
support through the provision of civilian construction
services," said Stuart Levey, Treasury's Under Secretary
for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI). "We
will take action against all facets of this deadly
terror group."
Jihad al-Bina has used deceptive
means to seek funding for projects from international
development organizations. In cases when intended
solicitation targets were thought to object to the
group's relationship with Hizballah and the Iranian
government, the organization employed deceptive
practices, applying in the name of proxies not publicly
linked to Hizballah. Following the summer 2006 conflict
with Israel, Hizballah used Jihad al-Bina to raise funds
for the terrorist organization and to bolster the
group's standing by providing construction services in
Southern Lebanon.
"At the same time that we are
targeting Hizballah's construction company, the U.S.
Government is also working to ensure that legitimate
reconstruction efforts, led by the Lebanese Government,
succeed," Levey continued.
In addition to the $230 million in
humanitarian reconstruction and security assistance
pledged by President Bush in August 2006, Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice announced an additional $770
million in aid to Lebanon at the January 25, 2007
Lebanon Donors' Conference in Paris, France. The aim of
this assistance is to help all the Lebanese people
rebuild their lives and country, while strengthening
Lebanon's sovereign, democratic government and helping
to ensure lasting peace.
Today's action prohibits transactions
between U.S persons and the designated entities and also
freezes any assets those entities may have under U.S.
jurisdiction.
Identifying Information
Jihad al-Bina
AKAs: Jihad al-Binaa'
Jihadu-I-Binaa
Construction for the sake of the holy
struggle
Construction Jihad
Struggle for Reconstruction
Jihad Construction Institution
Jihad Construction Foundation
Jihad al Binaa Association
Holy Construction Foundation
Jihad Construction
Location: Beirut,
Lebanon
Bekaa Valley, Lebanon
Southern Lebanon
Background on Hizballah
Hizballah is a Lebanon-based
terrorist group, which, until September 11, 2001, was
responsible for more American deaths than any other
terrorist organization. Hizballah is closely allied
with Iran and often acts at its behest, but it also can
and does act independently. Though Hizballah does not
share the Syrian regime's secular orientation, the group
has been a strong ally in helping Syria advance its
political objectives in the region.
Iran and Syria provide significant
support to Hizballah, giving money, weapons and training
to the terrorist organization. In turn, Hizballah is
closely allied with and has an allegiance to these
states. Iran is Hizballah's main source of weapons and
uses its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to train
Hizballah operatives in Lebanon and Iran. Iran provides
hundreds of millions of dollars per year to Hizballah.
The Majlis al-Shura, or Consultative
Council, is the group's highest governing body and has
been led by Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah since
1992. Hizballah is known or suspected to have been
involved in numerous terrorist attacks throughout the
world, including the suicide truck bombings of the U.S.
Embassy and U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut in 1983
and the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut in September 1984.
Hizballah also perpetrated the 1985 hijacking of TWA
Flight 847 en route from Athens to Rome, and has been
implicated in the attacks on the Israeli Embassy in
Argentina in 1992 and a Jewish cultural center in Buenos
Aires in 1994. The U.S. Government has indicted a member
of Hizballah for his participation in the June 1996
truck bomb attack of the U.S. Air Force dormitory at
Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. Most recently, in July
2006 Hizballah terrorists kidnapped two Israeli
soldiers, triggering a violent conflict that resulted in
hundreds of civilian casualties in Lebanon and Israel.
On January 25, 1995, the Annex to the
Executive Order 12947 listed Hizballah as a Specially
Designated Terrorist (SDT). The Department of State
designated Hizballah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization
(FTO) in 1997. Additionally, on October 31, 2001,
Hizballah was designated as a Specially Designated
Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224.
Please visit the following
links for more information on the Treasury's efforts to
stem the flow of support to Hizballah.
Treasury Targets Hizballah
Fundraising Network in the Triple Frontier of Argentina,
Brazil, and Paraguay (December 2006)
http://www.treasury.gov/press/releases/hp190.htm
Treasury
Cuts Iran's Bank Saderat Off From U.S. Financial System
(September 2006)
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp87.htm
Treasury
Designation Targets Hizballah's Bank (September 2006)
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp83.htm
Treasury
Designates Key Hizballah Fundraising Organization
(August 2006)
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp73.htm
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