Posted on 06/19/2019 7:09:01 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has imposed an “unprecedented” economic pressure campaign on Iran that is forcing its proxy Hezbollah to beg for spare change, a top Department of State (DOS) official told House lawmakers on Wednesday. Brian Hook, the U.S. Special Representative for Iran and senior policy adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, told the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and International Terrorism:
Today by nearly every metric the regime and its proxies are weaker than when our pressure began. … Our pressure campaign is working. It is making Iran’s violent and expansionist foreign policy cost prohibitive.
The top State official acknowledged that, even with limited economic resources, Iran remains a threat.
“Iran still, even with very little revenue has asymmetric capabilities that terrorists have,” Hook testified, noting that Tehran has responded to the sanctions with violence.
He revealed that the sanctions have made it difficult for Iran to expand its military capabilities and continue funding Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Tehran-allied Shiite militiamen in Iraq.
The State official’s revelation that Iran and Hezbollah are going broke came less than two years after Forbes, in January 2018, designated Hezbollah the wealthiest terrorist group in the world with an annual income of $1.1 billion, generated primarily by “aid funding from Iran, drug manufacture, and trade.”
The narco-terrorist group Hezbollah is heavily involved in lucrative drug trade and money laundering activities across the Western Hemisphere, particularly Latin America, according to the U.S. government.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Good. Maybe the pressures will make Iran change their ways.
Where’d Barry’s billions go? Did they burn through all that cash?
What a resume on this Brian Hook character. Wouldn’t trust him a Planck length.
Ten years ago I served at the AmbEmb Georgetown Guyana. During that period, Iran was quite active in VN. Several times biweekly shipments of weapons were seized by different
Different nations and it was in the news. Iran expanded into VN under Obama.
Cutting N.Korean missile and Nuclear tech off from Iran is Trump’s purpose for engagement.
It’s in Switzerland in the mullahs accounts.
CC
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.