The United States on Monday named Lebanese ex-information minister Michel Samaha to its global terror list for allegedly aiding Damascus launch assassinations in Lebanon. Samaha, 64, was arrested in August by Lebanese authorities and accused of plotting to assassinate Lebanese leaders and of transporting explosives into Lebanon for such attacks, the US Treasury said in a statement.

"The United States will continue to expose any attempts by the Assad regime to meddle in the affairs of its neighbours and further destabilise the region," said Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen. "We will continue to work with our international partners to ensure that the sovereignty of Lebanon is respected and upheld." Samaha, who has both Lebanese and Canadian citizenship, was minister of information and tourism in the 1990s government of Rafiq Hariri, who was himself killed in a massive car bombing on the Beirut seafront in 2005.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012