Funding Hezbollah will continue to give Iran difficulties with int'l markets - US

WASHINGTON, June 27 (KUNA) -- If Iran continues to allegedly fund terrorism, including supplying resources to Hezbollah, it will have a negative business impact on Iran, a White House spokesman said on Monday.
"Financial actors do not want to do business with a country that is funding terrorism," White House principal deputy press secretary Eric Schultz said during a briefing.
"So we call on Iran to not only stop doing this because it is not good for national security and they are supporting terrorism, but we call on Iran to stop doing it because it is not in their interest either," Schultz said.
The United States will continue to use all the tools at its disposal, including sanctions, to target Hezbollah, which is a designated foreign terrorist organization, he said.
"We believe our designations over the past year designating Hezbollah procurement networks, financial and commercial front companies and other entities have been highly effective," Schultz said. The sanctions regime passed earlier this year further builds on that and has created a climate throughout the world where financial institutions are rejecting Hezbollah from their institutions, he added.
"But ... if Iran is going to continue to support Hezbollah, Hezbollah is going to continue to have a funding stream and resources," Schultz said. "That is why it is all the more important that if Iran wants access to international markets, they are going to need to curb their own behavior." (end) rm.bs