The U.S. designated “a Lebanese businessman and Hizbollah financial facilitator, as well as five of his associates and eight of his companies in Lebanon and Iraq”. One of the designees, according to the Treasury Department, was engaged in “the import of Iranian oil on behalf of Hizbollah”, and another, in “the import and export of food products from Lebanon, Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq”. The State Department asserted that “we continue to counter Hizbollah’s exploitation of businesses to fund its terrorist activities and its efforts to destabilise Lebanon and the wider region”.