On te US request to Lebanon to freeze Hamas assets
The special investigation commission to fighting money laundry in "The Bank of Lebanon" yesterday issued orders to banks to disclose any accounts linked to the 6 leaders of the Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas" which the US ordered to freeze their assets.
However, an official at the Lebanese central Bank said that no decision was released to freezing any assets likely to be discovered and that any measure will depend on the result of the investigation.
The commission sent a notification to heads of banks asking them to disclose assets of the six Hamas leaders including Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the spiritual leader of the movement, its political leader Abdul Aziz al-Ranteisi and Osama Hamdan, the movement's representative in Lebanon.
The notification also called on the banks to disclose the assets linked to five Palestinian societies accused by Washington of supporting Hamas, financially, including "al-Sanabel foundation for relief and development," which takes Lebanon as a headquarters. Al- Sanabel denies any link to Hamas and indicated that it helps the Palestinian refugees and orphanages.
Ten days earlier, the Lebanese ministry of finance received a memorandum from the American embassy calling for freezing the assets of leading figures from "Hamas" and "Palestinian charity societies" and Lebanon replied that it will be audited on the possibility of having assets in the Lebanese banks having names of persons stated in the memorandum. However, no decision was taken to freeze any assets.
This step came following a decision taken by the US President George W. Bush in August to freezing the assets of the 6 leaders of Hamas and five Palestinian organizations in retaliation to a "suicide " operation carried out by Hamas in Jerusalem that resulted in killing 23 Israelis.
The US embassy in Beirut expressed cautiously its welcome of this Lebanese step. A spokeswoman for the embassy said "our position has not changed. we welcome any step taken towards actual freezing of these assets." Hamas, for its part, made no comment on this matter.