Hezbollah in financial dire straits due to US sanctions: White House

Hezbollah is strapped for cash and in its "worst financial shape in decades," according to a White House official cited in the Jerusalem Post. The reason for the crisis, the official told Congress on Wednesday, is non-nuclear sanctions placed on Iran and its allies by the US.

"After many years of sanctions targeting Hezbollah, today the group is in its worst financial shape in decades," said Adam Szubin, the acting Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence told Congress, quoted in the Post.

Speaking before the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Szubin added: "And I can assure you that, alongside our international partners, we are working hard to put them out of business."

Szubin faced questions from committee members over US's lifting of some sanctions on Iran in the wake of last July's landmark nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and six world powers finally being implemented in January of this year.

"The administration told us that sanctions on Iran's terrorism, human rights and ballistic missiles would be fully enforced after the agreement," said Ed Royce, the Republican California rep. and the committee chairman, quoted in the Post.

"Yet, it now says that non-nuclear sanctions would undermine the Iran agreement. The White House's Iran policy amounts to walking on eggshells."

"We have not lifted any of our sanctions designed to counter Iran's destabilizing activities outside the nuclear file," Szabin countered. "These sanctions are not just words on paper. We are vigorously enforcing them."