Banker: US sanctions against Hezbollah will not target banks

BEIRUT – A top Lebanese banker says new US sanctions against the militant Hezbollah group expected to be released in the near future are not likely to affect the country's banking sector.

The US House of Representatives is expected to vote soon on new sanctions against Hezbollah. It is still not clear whether the sanctions will target Hezbollah's allies in Lebanon.

The new American sanctions will come nearly two years after then President Barack Obama signed the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act that imposes sanctions on banks that knowingly do business with the group.

Joseph Torbey, head of Association of Banks in Lebanon, told reporters Monday that US officials have reassured a Lebanese delegation that visited Washington recently that the sanctions are not going to target the Lebanese banking sector.