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Syria-Lebanon-Iran | ||||
EU's Ashton warns against political vacuum in Lebanon | ||||
2012-10-24 | ||||
BEIRUT: EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton warned yesterday against a political vacuum in Lebanon after the opposition called for the premier to step down over a deadly blast blamed on Syria, state media said.
Her The blast in Beirut killed police intelligence chief General Wissam Al-Hassan, who led a series of investigations linking the regime of President Bashar Assad to political assassinations in Lebanon. "This attack is a terrible thing; we are concerned about the stability of Lebanon," Ashton was quoted as saying after meeting Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
Afterwards, "we received a second SMS that read: 'Congratulations, the countdown has begun. One of 10 eliminated.'" Hassan's murder has sparked fears of new inter-confessional strife in Lebanon, where much of the Sunni Muslim community opposes the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and most Shiites support him. Since the bombing, at least 12 people have been killed and wounded in fighting in the northern city of Tripoli, including a woman who died yesterday. There has also been scattered violence in Beirut since Friday's bombing, in which a Palestinian youth was killed. Anti-Syria opposition chief Saad Hariri and other political figures have blamed Damascus for the assassination and demanded the resignation of Mikati, whose cabinet is dominated by Syrian ally Hezbollah. Mikati, who expressed his desire to step down, said on Saturday he would stay at the request of President Michel Sleiman in the "national interest." In a separate meeting with Sleiman yesterday, Ashton expressed her concerns of a possible political vacuum and the EU's commitment to the "sovereignty, independence and stability of Lebanon," the National News Agency said.
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Posted by:Steve White |
#1 Anybody ever heard this women saying something that makes sense? |
Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2012-10-24 13:24 |