WASHINGTON: United States President Barack Obama Thursday extended a freeze on assets of persons threatening stability in Lebanon, targeting those seeking “to undermine Lebanon’s legitimate and democratically elected government.”

A White House statement, extending the freeze imposed in 2007, said that “certain ongoing activities, such as continuing arms transfers to Hezbollah that include increasingly sophisticated weapons systems, serve to undermine Lebanese sovereignty.”
The move comes amid tense relations between the U.S. and Syria, which has links to Hezbollah, considered a terrorist group by Washington.

Hezbollah was blamed for the fall of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s government in January after the party and its March 8 allies resigned over a U.N. probe into the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri.
On Aug. 2, 2007, President George W. Bush ordered a freeze on the U.S. assets of anyone Washington deems to be undermining Lebanon’s pro-Western government.
The Bush administration did not identify those targeted by the decree, but it came just a month after he imposed a U.S. travel ban on Syrian officials and Lebanese politicians whom the United States accused of fomenting instability in Lebanon.

The travel ban did not list individuals subject to the ban, but the White House released information that named 10 individuals who were suspected of being engaged in the type of activities Washington had been seeking to end.
They included top Syrian military intelligence officials, an adviser to Syrian President Bashar Assad, and former Lebanese ministers and an MP.

The Syrians are Hisham Ikhtiyar, Jamaa Jamma, Rustom Ghazaleh and Asef Shawkat.
The Lebanese officials listed included former ministers Abdel-Rahim Mrad, Assad Hardan of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, Assem Qanso of the Baath Party, Wiam Wahhab, Michel Samaha, and former MP Nasser Qandil.