Lebanon calls for end to Iran’s ‘malign influence through Hezbollah’

A US official visiting Lebanon called on its authorities on Monday to end Iran’s “malign influence through Hezbollah”, adding that his country was determined to cut off Tehran’s funding of the Islamist group.

Washington is pushing to cut off Hezbollah’s funding sources while also pressuring the Lebanese government to disarm the group. Hezbollah has been weakened in its most recent war with Israel, which ended with a cease-fire in November 2024.

“We believe the key to the Lebanese people getting their country back is to end Iran’s malign influence through Hezbollah in Lebanon,” said Deputy Director for Counterterrorism John Harley.

The US “government is very serious about cutting off Iranian funding” to Hezbollah, he told three reporters, including one from AFP, at the US embassy.

“If we could remove Iran’s malign influence from Lebanon, reassure Israel that Lebanon is not a threat to Israel, I think … the region would be better off,” he said.

Harley is part of a delegation led by Sebastian Gorka, Washington’s counterterrorism director, that has been meeting with Lebanese officials since Sunday.

“We’ve been very frank with the president, the prime minister and other senior officials that there is a window right now, particularly the window between now and the election” scheduled for May 2026, Hurley said.

According to the US Treasury Department, Iran has transferred more than a billion dollars to the group since January.

– Cash, Gold, Crypto –

One particular way was money laundering through cash exchanges.

Speaking about the funding, Hurley said that “a lot of it is cash, a lot of it is gold, some of it is crypto.”

He said he had visited the United Arab Emirates and Turkey to discuss “strategies that we can take together to try to quell it”.

“Certainly historically, we’ve seen significant flows from those two countries coming here from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, ultimately destined for Hezbollah,” he added.

On Thursday, the United States imposed sanctions on three Hezbollah members who facilitated the transfer of funds from Iran, through money exchanges, that the group was using to rebuild its military capability.

Harley acknowledged that Lebanese authorities have had “some success in stopping cash at the airport, stopping gold at the airport” in Beirut.

“We’d like to see it extend to ports. We’d like to see it extend to all borders,” he added.

A Lebanese official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely told AFP that the US delegation had given a “clear and firm” message about the need to actively combat Hezbollah’s funding sources.

“They want real action before the end of the year,” the official said.