US House imposes new sanctions on Hezbollah

The US House of Representatives has unanimously approved a bill to impose new sanctions against the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.

The House passed the measure by 423-0 on Thursday, shortly after the legislature voted overwhelmingly to approve a bill allowing Congress to review, and possibly reject, an international nuclear agreement with Iran.

The House passed similar Hezbollah sanctions legislation last year, but the Senate did not approve it.

The chamber's leaders arranged the vote in order to appease hawkish lawmakers who want Iran to stop what they call financial assistance to Hezbollah as a condition to support the nuclear deal.

Iran and the P5+1 –  the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany – are engaged in intense negotiations to work out a comprehensive agreement aimed at ending the longstanding dispute over the Islamic Republic’s civilian nuclear work.

But the Republican-controlled Congress is leaving no stone unturned to prevent Iran and the P5+1 from reaching a final agreement on the nuclear issue.

Hezbollah was founded in the 1980s following the Israeli invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah waged a long resistance campaign against Zionist troops and pushed them out of southern Lebanon in May 2000.

Since then, the movement has grown into a powerful military force and has successfully defeated the Zionist regime several times.  

Hezbollah has also supported the Syrian army in its fight against the foreign-sponsored militants who have been wreaking havoc in the Arab country since March 2011. 

Since its inception in 1985, the Islamic resistance movement has been a thorn in the flesh of Israel and its foreign backers, such as the United States.