FPM Denounces U.S. Sanctions against its Leader

The Free Patriotic Movement denounced in a statement on Saturday the US Treasury sanctions imposed on its leader and former minister Jebran Bassil.

The FPM said sanctions on the President’s son-in-law, Bassil are only part of a “slander campaign,” and that a US domestic law is being “exploited to retaliate against a political leader for complying to his principles, convictions, and national choices.”

The U.S. Treasury on Friday slapped sanctions on Bassil, a leading Christian political ally of the Hizbullah, singling him out for what it said was his role in corruption.

Bassil has emerged as a major target of Lebanese protesters who thronged streets in an uprising last year over endemic corruption and state mismanagement.

The Treasury designation did not mention Bassil's alliance or links to Hizbullah, but the sanctions targeting him appeared to be part of the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign against Iran and its allies in the region.

Hizbullah condemned the US Treasury's imposition of sanctions on Bassil, saying it considered the move to be a "political decision and a blatant and blunt interference in the internal affairs of Lebanon."

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a statement, said Bassil contributes to a prevailing system of corruption and political patronage in Lebanon that has “aided and abetted Hizbullah’s destabilizing activities.”