WarSclerotic

U.S. sanctions against Iran are having a clear impact on other countries and were making it difficult for firms to assess the risks of doing business there, Britain said Wednesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump on May 8 withdrew from a deal between Iran and major world powers according to which some sanctions against Tehran were lifted in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program. Trump has since imposed new sanctions, cutting Iran’s use of a critical banking network.

“It is clear that there is extraterritorial reach to some of these sanctions,” said Rona Fairhead, a trade department minister in the upper house of the British parliament, acknowledging that the sanctions would have an impact on trade between Iran and countries other than the United States.

“All businesses have to take into account the commercial risks, the legal risks, the financing risks of any transaction, and clearly these sanctions make that difficult,” she said.

Fairhead said Britain was providing guidance on the ground in Iran and at home to help companies navigate those risks and was also working with other governments to keep trade ties alive.

“We are working with our EU colleagues and directly both with the U.S. and with the EU to try and both protect our businesses as well as encourage the U.S. to allow us to continue economic ties because we think that’s important,” she said.

British, French and German foreign ministers met in Brussels on Tuesday to see how they can save the nuclear deal without the United States, but appeared hard-pressed over how their companies could continue doing business with Iran once Washington begins to reimpose sanctions.

The United States and Persian Gulf partners imposed additional sanctions on Lebanon’s Hezbollah leadership on Wednesday, targeting its top two officials, leader Hassan Nasrallah and his deputy, Naim Qassem.

The U.S. Treasury Department said four other individuals were also sanctioned, as was the Islamic State group in the Greater Sahara, which was designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

It was the third round of sanctions announced by Washington since the United States pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal last week.

Wednesday’s sanctions targeted members of the primary decision-making body of Hezbollah, Treasury said in a statement.

“By targeting Hezbollah’s Shura Council, our nations collectively rejected the false distinction between a so-called ‘Political Wing’ and Hezbollah’s global terrorist plotting,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

The move expands U.S. sanctions against Nasrallah, who was sanctioned by Washington in 1995 for threatening to disrupt the Middle East peace process and again in 2012 over Syria. It is, however, the first time that the U.S. Treasury has acted against Qassem, who is being listed for his ties to Hezbollah.

The measures were imposed jointly by Washington and its partners in the Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center, which includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, it said.

The Gulf states targeted four of the movement’s committees and ordered individuals’ assets and bank accounts frozen.

A number of those targeted by the TFTC had been previously blacklisted by the United States.

Earlier on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, discussed Qatar’s efforts to counter the financing of terrorism, the State Department said.

Last year, Nasrallah dismissed the prospect of tougher U.S. sanctions against his group.

“The American administration, with all available and possible means, will not be able to damage the strength of the resistance,” Nasrallah said on Aug. 13, 2017, in a televised address to mark the anniversary of the end of the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

Shiite Hezbollah and its political allies made significant gains in Lebanon’s parliamentary election earlier this month, boosting an Iranian-backed movement fiercely opposed to Israel and underlining Tehran’s growing regional clout.

The Trump administration has sought in recent days to choke off funding for Iran’s overseas operations, including its backing for Hezbollah.

Egypt’s harsh rebuke of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was prompted by Saudi Arabia learning that Iran and Qatar meddled in efforts to diffuse the violent demonstrations orchestrated by the terrorist group on the Gazan-Israeli border, a senior Egyptian intelligence official told Israel Hayom on Wednesday.

Sixty Palestinians were killed and 2,700 others were wounded in riots on the Israel-Gaza border Monday. It was the deadliest day since Hamas launched its border riots campaign on March 30, bringing the overall death toll to 120.

Haniyeh was urgently summoned to Cairo on Monday, where, according to a senior Egyptian official, “he was told, in no uncertain terms, that the blood of the dead was on his hands.”

The Israeli military said it had proof that at least ‎‎24 of the dead were known terrorists. On Tuesday, ‎Hamas leaders admitted that 50 of the dead were its ‎operatives. ‎

“The Saudis, who supported the Egyptian pressure exerted on Hamas, are vehemently opposed to any semblance of collaboration with Doha, and even declared that any involvement by Qatar will cause the Saudis to withdraw the support and backing it gave for the pressure placed on Hamas” by Egypt, the official said.

Arab media reported on the drama that had unfolded in Cairo on Monday extensively.

The Egyptian official told Israel Hayom that the urgent meeting between Egyptian General Intelligence Service head Maj. Gen. Abbas Kamel and other top officers and Haniyeh was “extremely heated.”

The Saudis accused Qatar of helping Hamas instigate border riots through its envoy to the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Al-Emadi, saying Qatar’s assertion that it was key to convincing Hamas to roll back the riots was false.

“Contrary to reports on Qatari mediation, their role was negligible, effectively nonexistent,” the Egyptian official noted. “Qatar is beginning to show more and more that it represents the interests of Iran. Following the intelligence that was gathered on Iranian involvement and support for the violent incidents on the border with Gaza, causing the deaths of dozens of Palestinians, there was no place for Qatar to mediate between the parties and try to improve their image in the Arab and Western world at the expense of Palestinians killed and wounded.”

Reports that during Haniyeh’s scolding the Egyptians delivered a message from Israel saying that unless the border riots subside the IDF will resurrect its policy of targeted assassinations against Hamas’ leadership, received wide coverage in Arab media.

Egyptian intelligence officials said a shocked Haniyeh was told by Kamel that if his people continue the demonstrations and bring about the death of more Palestinians, they will hold him and the rest of the Hamas leadership personally responsible.

“Kamel demanded Haniyeh return to Gaza in the helicopter that brought him and order his people to immediately halt the incidents along the border with Israel,” the Egyptian official said. “Meanwhile, Hamas has received no positive gesture [from the international community] other than Gaza being in the headlines again. It’s likely that later, if the border remains quiet, gestures toward Hamas and the population of Gaza are likely to be made.

“The message sent, however, was hostile and placed the responsibility on Hamas to bring the order back to Gaza,” he said.

Haniyeh reportedly told the Egyptians that Hamas was prepared to discuss a “tahdiya,” or lull in hostilities with Israel, which could, eventually, secure a cease-fire, but he did not agree to discuss basic conditions for a cease-fire and rejected even the possibility of discussing the disarmament of Hamas’ military wing.

In response, “Haniyeh was told that Hamas is in no position to stipulate any conditions whatsoever,” the official said. “Hamas is effectively not even willing to discuss ways for actual steps that will allow a tahdiya. Therefore, in such a situation, there is absolutely nothing to discuss. The era of empty rhetoric is over, and Hamas must understand this.”

Meanwhile, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi confirmed Wednesday that Egypt was involved in behind-the-scenes communications between Israel and Hamas.

“We are in contact with the Palestinian and Israeli sides to stop the bloodshed,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar told Al Jazeera that the Egyptians and Hamas agreed not to allow clashes on the border fence to escalate into an armed conflict. He said that the “peaceful” demonstrations along the fence achieved some of their goals.

“The right of return and the Palestinian problem returned to the world stage,” he said. “Hamas will continue its nonviolent approach of popular resistance. We will do everything in our power to ensure the demonstrations do not escalate, but we will not remain indifferent if the enemy spills the blood of our people.”