Lahoud gives instructions to maintain security
Lebanon, Politics, 2/15/2005

The higher council for defense in Lebanon asked after convening an emergency meeting held by the Lebanese President Emil Lahoud to authorize the army in coordination with various other Lebanese security forces to take all measures to control the security situation in the country, following the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri on Monday noon.

The council proposed to the government announcing general mourning in the country for three days and holding a national funeral for the late prime minister.

In a press conference held in Beirut on Monday, the Lebanese minister of information warned the Lebanese "against being dragged to a conspiracy hatched against their country." He stressed that the Lebanese government is trying to avert flaring conflicts in the region, noting that attacks recently took place in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The assassination operation, the most violent in Lebanon since the end of the civil war in Lebanon in 1990, bewildered and shocked the Lebanese public amid fears that Lebanon will return back to the atmospheres of the civil war once again.

Lebanese parliamentarian Ahmad Sweid accused Israel of being behind the assassination. He said that Hariri's assassination is an attempt to damage Syrian- Lebanese relations. He continued that the instant official Syrian statement which deplored the assassination closed the door before such an attempt. But he indicated the need of stopping political discussions over the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon.

The opposition parliamentarian for the Syrian presence in Lebanon Fares Saeed called on the international community to protect Lebanon from all sides targeting it without mentioning it in name.

For his part, the former Lebanese minister Joseph al-Hashem said that Hariri's assassination will not only affect Lebanon, rather the Arab arena and the world as a whole, adding that the Lebanese people know who is behind these operations and that there is no fear on the unity of the Lebanese rank.

The Muslim clergy Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah called on all Lebanese in a statement for maintaining unity and solidarity in this grave phase.

The Hariri family eulogized him to the Lebanese people as "the martyr of national unity" in a statement in which his supporters were called upon to resort to calmness.

Hariri ( 60 year old) presided over the government in Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and then from 2000 to October 2004 when he resigned and moved to the lines of the opposition.

Previous Stories:
  Former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri killed in a large blast in Beirut   (2/14/2005)
  Former UN SG criticizes selectivity in implementing UN resolutions   (2/14/2005)
  Ferzli stresses right of palestinian refugees to return home   (2/14/2005)

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