US Hosts First Meeting Of Global Partnership Targeting Hezbollah Finances - Treasury

US Hosts First Meeting of Global Partnership Targeting Hezbollah Finances - Treasury

The United States has convened the first meeting of a global partnership that aims to disrupt Hezbollah's financial networks around the world, the Treasury Department said in a press release on Friday

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2019) The United States has convened the first meeting of a global partnership that aims to disrupt Hezbollah's financial networks around the world, the Treasury Department said in a press release on Friday.

"This week the Treasury Department convened the first meeting of the Counter-Hizballah International Partnership (CHIP) to build multilateral cooperation for targeting Hizballah's global financial networks," the release said.

The Treasury noted that more than 30 countries representing the middle East, the Western Hemisphere, Europe, Asia, and Africa took part in the meeting, which was held in Washington on the sidelines of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund annual gathering.

During the meeting, US officials identified steps that countries should take in order to curb what they called Hezbollah's "abuse" of the global financial system, the release said.

Such steps include "information sharing information among financial intelligence units, strengthening terrorism finance risk assessments, developing targeted financial sanctions regimes, and prosecuting terrorists and their financial facilitators," the release said.

Participants in this week's meeting are expected to send technical experts to attend another gathering in The Hague on December 17-18, the Treasury said.

Hezbollah emerged in the 1980s as a Shiite paramilitary organization aimed at ending Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon. It later evolved into a political party that currently has representatives in the country's Cabinet, Parliament and municipalities.