Legs and Regs

The U.S. Treasury Department announced that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated a senior member of Hezbollah’s External Security Organization, which is responsible for the planning, coordination and execution of terrorist attacks outside of Lebanon.

Specifically, the Treasury sanctioned Salman Raouf Salman pursuant to Executive Order 13224, which targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism. He was sanctioned for his senior leadership role in the terrorist organization, which includes activities to direct Hezbollah’s foreign operations from Lebanon. The Treasury press release underlines that Salman has a long history of leadership and operational planning within Hezbollah, having served as one of the most prominent operatives behind the Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina bombing in 1994, which killed 85 people. More recently, Salman was identified as the Hezbollah operative that served as the handler for Mohammed Hamdar, who was arrested by Peruvian counterterrorism police in October 2014 for planning a terrorist attack in Peru.

In coordination with OFAC’s designation, he has also been sanctioned by Argentina and the U.S. State Department has now issued a reward offer of up to $7,000,000 for the identification or location of Salman. Additionally, the sanctions now prohibit U.S. persons from engaging in transactions with Salmon and all of his property subject to U.S. jurisdiction is now blocked.