Hezbollah: Rubio Bill Blocking Its International Funds a ‘Crime’

The Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah has denounced a new bill approved by the Senate, which seeks to block the Shiite revolutionary outfit from funding.

The Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015 is a bipartisan bill originally co-sponsored by Republican candidate for President Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH). The bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent and had 27 cosponsors, which included nine Democrats. A related piece of legislation passed the House in May.

Sen. Rubio introduced the bill in June, which seeks to “prevent Hezbollah and associated entities from gaining access to international financial and other institutions, and for other purposes.”

The Republican Senator from Florida said in remarks last week that the legislation would help “guarantee that our government is focused on eliminating this terrorist group.”

“We cannot afford to jeopardize our national security by letting Iran’s leading terrorist proxy, Hezbollah, continue to pose a direct threat to us,” he said. “It is time for us to reveal the expansiveness of its dangerous network.”

Hezbollah, the terror entity responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans over the past few decades, called the bill “a new crime by American institutions against our people and nation.”

The Lebanon-based militant group added that the bill comes as a price for “resisting all evil projects against our holy places, rights, nations and people.”

The bill specifically calls on the Obama White House to brief Congress on the Hezbollah-affiliated al-Manar TV, a satellite network that broadcasts pro-jihadi propaganda worldwide.

Hezbollah was designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department in October 1997. The group executed the 1983 Beirut bombings on a U.S. Marine barracks, killing 241 American servicemen. Hezbollah also coordinated with Al Qaeda on the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, which killed 19 American soldiers.

The jihadi outfit has sworn allegiance to Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei, which makes the Lebanese-based group subservient to the rulers of the Islamic Republic. Hezbollah is led by secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, who has pledged to hunt down Jews worldwide and to destroy the State of Israel.