The sanctions imposed by the US Treasury on Representative Jamil Al-Sayed and businessmen Jihad Al-Arab and Danny Khoury, have a clear message that the United States will target corruption in Lebanon.

This was stated by the US State Department’s regional spokeswoman, Geraldine Griffiths, in an exclusive interview with Sawt Beirut International, in which she confirmed that Washington seeks to enhance accountability and stand by the Lebanese people in their demand for a government committed to carrying out its duties and able to take the radical and required steps to address the difficulties Lebanon is facing, such as the lack of water and electricity and other difficulties.

Griffiths added that these people were chosen because of their long record of corruption, noting that under the sanctions, all potential property and interests of the three men in the United States, whether bank accounts, real estate property or other assets, were frozen.

It also prohibits US citizens and companies, including financial institutions in the United States, from doing business with them, limiting their access to global financial and commercial networks.

Griffiths added that the results of these sanctions will not appear overnight, but will contribute to drying up the sources of the corrupt in Lebanon, including Hezbollah’s allies and opponents, who exploit Lebanese resources to serve foreign agendas.

She explained that regardless of any political or religious affiliation, the United States seeks to target and hold the corrupt accountable, and this message is for the corrupt in Lebanon and for all Lebanese parties and authorities, to urge them to carry out their duties, because the Lebanese are facing daily difficulties to obtain goods and services in light of an economic crisis that is not prefixed.

According to Griffiths, these sanctions are not limited to the United States, but to the international community as a whole, to impose sanctions on figures who have exploited Lebanese resources and contributed to undermining Lebanese institutions and endangering Lebanon at the expense of the Lebanese people.