Statement Issued by Hezbollah on the Statements of the U.S. Treasury and State Departments:

The U.S. administration came out yesterday, through the U.S. Treasury and State Departments, claiming that Hezbollah is under the control of the Quds Force, using this allegation to justify its decision to reimpose sanctions on the group. In reality, this decision is nothing more than another link in the ongoing policies of successive U.S. administrations aimed at targeting the Resistance, its community, social environment, and supporters, while besieging and pressuring them politically, financially, and militarily, with the aim of protecting Israeli security, entrenching its occupation of southern Lebanon, and paving the way for it to implement its expansionist projects and ambitions in the region.

This latest-old decision by the U.S. Treasury confirms that the U.S. administration, which has long used sanctions as a means of imposing its dominance and will upon states and peoples, continues to deal with Lebanon from a position of tutelage. Instead of compelling the Israeli enemy to withdraw from southern Lebanon, halt its attacks, stop demolishing homes, bulldozing fields, and killing Lebanese people, it chooses to besiege the Lebanese people and strip Lebanon of all sources of strength. In doing so, it seeks to create internal turmoil in Lebanon and divert the confrontation with the Israeli enemy in another direction.

Hezbollah does not await anyone’s certificate of its Lebanese identity or patriotism. The sacrifices of thousands of martyrs who gave their lives for Lebanon and its people, together with the long history of resistance, confronting occupation, and defending the land and sovereignty, constitute the true testimony to its Lebanese identity. Our close and fraternal relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran is a relationship we value and take pride in, because Iran stood by Lebanon, supported it, and assisted it in liberating its land and restoring its sovereignty and rights. It remained by Lebanon’s side throughout every crisis and difficult period and was among the first countries to contribute to rebuilding what was destroyed by Israeli aggression during the July 2006 war.

The U.S. administration has neither the moral nor legal standing to classify others or issue certificates of patriotism. Its bloody criminal record, from Vietnam to Afghanistan and Iraq, its unlimited support for the genocide in Gaza, its cover for the crimes committed by the Israeli enemy—including killing and destruction in Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria—its aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran, its disregard for international laws and conventions, and its blatant disregard for human and ethical values have turned the world into a jungle governed by the law of the strong devouring the weak. This places the United States in the position of the world’s foremost sponsor of terrorism and strips it of any right to appoint itself as a judge over the world and its peoples.

All these unjust sanctions and designations will not deter us from adhering to the path of Resistance and to the right of Lebanon and the Lebanese people to defend their land, sovereignty, and resources. Nor will they change the fact that the Resistance has been, remains, and will continue to be an integral part of Lebanon’s history, present, and future.