The U.S. designated “Gibran Bassil, the leader of the Lebanese Free Patriotic Movement and a former Lebanese cabinet official… for his role in corruption”. The State Department said the designation “build[s] on the recent counterterrorism designations under Executive Order 13224 of former Lebanese officials… who put personal interests and those of Iran-backed Hizbollah ahead of the welfare of the Lebanese people”, adding that Bassil “undermined good governance and contributed to the prevailing system of corruption and political patronage that plagues Lebanon, which has aided and abetted Hizbollah’s destabilising activities”.