| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Lebanon calls for a strike to protest Ghanem's assassination |
| 2007-09-22 |
| Lebanon's Phalange Party called for a two-day strike Thursday, a day after a powerful bomb blast in Beirut killed an anti-Syrian lawmaker and four other people. The bombing was the latest in a series of attacks targeting prominent anti-Syrian figures. The explosion, widely blamed on Damascus, killed Phalange member Antoine Ghanem, 64, an anti-Syrian Lebanese parliamentarian and Christian Maronite. Along with the Phalange Party, known for its anti-Syrian stance, the bankers' union and the Ministry of Education backed the strike. Wednesday's bomb exploded in a huge fireball that ripped through an upscale Christian neighborhood during evening rush hour. The attack wounded at least 70 people in addition to the five slain, Lebanese security sources said. The bombing threatens to deepen the country's political turmoil days before a key presidential vote. Walid Jumblatt, head of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party and a parliamentarian, called the killing "a bloody message" as it comes ahead of elections, reducing government supporters' parliamentary majority bloc from 69 to 68 and increasing the difficulty of electing "a free president for Lebanon." Prime Minister Fouad Siniora vowed that the attack would not derail Lebanon's attempts to choose a president, according to The Associated Press. "The hand of terror will not win and will not succeed in subduing us and silencing us," he said in a statement late Wednesday reported by the AP. "The Lebanese will not retreat and will have a new president elected by lawmakers, no matter how big the conspiracy was." Former Lebanese President Amine Gemayel called Ghanem a "very close friend of mine," adding that his assassination is "very, very dangerous for the future of democracy in Lebanon." Gemayel's son Pierre, a Lebanese anti-Syrian parliamentarian, was assassinated last November. Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh accused the Syrian regime of "using its terrorist skills to assassinate, one after the other, the MPs belonging to the Lebanese independence movement majority ... in order to deplete the majority of its numbers and to impose a comeback of Syria over Lebanon." But an unidentified source with the state-run SANA news agency, which speaks for the Syrian government, condemned the killing. "This criminal act targets the efforts and endeavors exerted by Syria and others to achieve the Lebanese national accord," the source told SANA. President Bush called the incident a "horrific assassination." "Since October 2004, there has been a tragic pattern of political assassinations and attempted assassinations designed to silence those Lebanese who courageously defend their vision of an independent and democratic Lebanon," Bush said in a statement Wednesday. Three months ago, anti-Syrian parliament member Walid Eido was killed along with nine others, including his son and two bodyguards, in an explosion in western Beirut. Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in Beirut in February 2005, sparking widespread protests that led to the ouster of Syrian forces from Lebanon. advertisement U.N. investigators concluded last year that Hariri's death may be linked to high-ranking Syrian officials. Syria has denied any involvement in the killings and said the U.N. tribunal investigating Hariri's death is a violation of its sovereignty. Siniora asked the United Nations to include Ghanem's killing in its investigation into the Hariri slaying, the AP reported. |
| Posted by:Fred |