... Leb's current al-Qaeda affiliate, named after a guy whose car the current head of al-Qaeda had boomed...
President Michel Suleiman
...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too...
condemned the attack, saying: "There can be no salvation from terrorism except through complete solidarity among the people regardless of their political affiliations."
"Terrorism does not differentiate between regions and religions, but it only seeks death and destruction," he added.
Earlier the president had contacted Iranian Ambassador to Leb Ghazanfar Rokn-Abadi to offer his condolences over the bombing that took place near the Iranian Cultural Center.
He also contacted Interior Minister Nuhad Mashnouq and Kuwaiti Ambassador to Leb Abdul Aal al-Qinai.
Speaker Nabih
KnobbyBerri
Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, a member of AMAL, a not very subtle Hizbullah sock puppet...
meanwhile urged the "greatest level of vigilance and caution" in confronting the series of bombings that have targeted Leb.
Prime Minister Tammam Salam slammed the twin kabooms, considering them a "message by the terrorist groups to continue its plot in spreading absurd deaths in Leb."
"Amid the positive political stances... Terrorism once again hit Leb by bombing a safe neighborhood in a message that reflects the insistence of the evil powers to harm Leb and the Lebanese and to create sedition."
He noted that the Lebanese will "respond to it with more unity, solidarity, by holding on to our civil peace and supporting our army and security forces."
Bir Hassan is surrounded by neighborhood that are strongholds of the Hizbullah and have been targeted in multiple kabooms killing civilians.
Leb has been rocked by a string of car and suicide kabooms in recent months, many targeting strongholds of Hizbullah in apparent retribution for its role in Syria.
The group has admitted sending fighters to the neighboring country to battle alongside Syria's Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
against an uprising.
For his part, Hizbullah's Industry Minister Hussein al-Hajj Hassan called on the Lebanese to tighten their grip on national stances and to confront terrorism.
Interior Minister Mashnouq said from the blast scene that the kaboom targets all the Lebanese people and the government will take the necessary measures to tackle the situation.
"The cabinet will take all the necessary measure to end the phenomena of suicide attacks," Mashnouq added.
Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil stressed that "terrorism is targeting all the Lebanese. We must put an end to it."
Labor Minister Sejaan Qazzi said that the suicide kabooms that targeted the area aims at destabilizing Leb, stressing that security should be a priority.
He called on the Lebanese people to be aware of the dangerous stage the country is passing through and to unite in order to confront terrorism.
Head of the Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
MP
Michel Aoun...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
said via twitter that "gunnies were bothered by the formation of the cabinet after they became convinced that it would fight them."
Al-Mustaqbal
... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri...
Movement Chief Saad Hariri
Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.
said that "if the aim behind the attack is to inform the Lebanese that their country isn't immune to terrorism despite the formation of the cabinet then we will hold on to our unity today more than ever."
"We condemn the attacks with the strongest rhetoric," Hariri said in a statement, calling on security forces to pursue the culprits.
He urged the Lebanese for more solidarity and to allow the cabinet to carry out its responsibilities during this delicate situation.
Hariri reiterated calls on the Lebanese to dissociate itself from the conflict in Syria and on Hizbullah to withdraw its fighters from the ongoing war in the neighboring country and to abide by the Baabda Declaration.
Lebanese Forces
A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb...
leader
Samir Geagea... Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005 ...
later condemned in a statement the Bir Hassan bombing, calling for Hizbullah to withdraw its fighters from Syria.
"We had previously predicted that the situation in Leb will not change with the formation of a new government," he added.
"The situation will change when the policies of previous governments are altered," he explained.
He demanded that the border between Leb and Syria be controlled in order to thwart the flow gunnies, offering his condolences to the victims of the blast.
Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani
... Grand Mufti of Lebanon and the most prominent Sunni Muslim cleric in the country. An assassination attempt against Qabbani was foiled by Leb internal security forces in 2009 as part of the Eid al-Fitr celebrations in Beirut. In an interview broadcast in 2012, Qabbani stated that Jews were behind secularism, because they opposed the authority of the church, against Christianity.He also suggested that the attacks of September 11, 2001 were
orchestratedby Jews in order
to justify the persecution of Muslims worldwide.Qabbani is against the legalization of civil marriage in Lebanon. He has issued a fatwa declaring any Muslim politician who approves civil marriage legislation an apostate. Surprisingly, he is not considered very much of a nut by Moslem standards.
also denounced the attack, calling on Salam's cabinet to "swiftly control the situation in Leb and reduce tension and all forms of incitement to confront the upcoming stage as a one hand.
Head of the Phalange Party
The Kataeb (Phalange) party was founded by Pierre Gemayel in 1936, who modeled the party after Spanish and Italian Fascist parties he had observed as an Olympic athlete during the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, then Nazi Germany. The movement's uniforms originally included brown shirts and members used the Nazi salute. Despite the party's uniform, its strong sense of nationalism and dedication to a single charismatic leader, the Lebanese Kataeb was not and never became a fascist party nor did it espouse a totalitarian ideology.
Amin Gemayel said: "The Bir Hassan bombing is a bloody message aimed at terrorizing the new cabinet that is an embodiment of national will."
"The best way to respond to the bombings lies in activating government work and seizing control of the security situation," he added.