A top U.S. Treasury official visiting Beirut this week pressed Lebanese authorities to prevent funds from being funneled to Hamas by way of Lebanon, officials said.
The U.S. Treasury Department building is shown at dusk in Washington on June 6, 2019. A top U.S. Treasury official visiting Beirut pressed Lebanese authorities to prevent funds from being funneled to Hamas by way of Lebanon, officials said. Jesse Baker, deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for Asia and the Middle East in the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, met with Lebanese politicians and officials from the financial sector Thursday March 7 and Friday, March 8, 2024.
A Treasury official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters said Baker had shared with Lebanese authorities “specific concerns" about "the movement of Hamas funds through Lebanon, Hezbollah funds from Iran into Lebanon and then out into other regional areas” and called for “proactive measures” to combat it.
Those businesses — along with a cash economy that the World Bank has estimated amounts to nearly 46 per cent of Lebanon's GDP — have offered workarounds for people and groups barred from the formal financial system by U.S. sanctions, including Hamas and Hezbollah, both of which Washington considers terrorist organizations.Halim Berti, spokesperson for Lebanon's central bank, confirmed that officials with the institution had met with Baker and described the meetings as “very positive.
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