Lebanese government calls the opposition not to play with Hariri's blood
Lebanon, Politics, 2/18/2005

The Lebanese government reacted to criticism raised by the opposition against it and accused it of using for political purposes the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri, whose funeral was held on Wednesday in a massive funeral amidst vast demands of an international investigation on his assassination.

Some Cabinet ministers and its allies said that the opposition is the first beneficiary from the assassination incident. The Lebanese minister of the interior Suleiman Franjieh considered that "it is natural the opposition to feel powerful and to make use of this ugly crime because this is among the conditions of the game." He called on the opposition not to use this incident for political gains.

Franjieh added following his visit to Hariri's house where he offered condolences that "political implications prove that the government has no interest in what had happened. Today there is a complete community against us. It is the Sunni community." In a statement to al-Jazeera TV, chairman of the phalangists party Karim Baqradouni said that the opposition tries to use the Hariri assassination in order to accuse Syria.

The Lebanese opposition directly held the "Lebanese authority and the Syrian authority responsible for the assassination of Hariri. This was in a meeting held several hours after the assassination incident in Hariri's house and in the presence of members of his family.

Both the Hariri family and the Lebanese opposition refused categorically the offer given by the Lebanese authority to make a national official funeral. A people funeral was organized in which hundreds of thousands of Lebanese and Arab and international official figures took part.

Previous Stories:
  Nasrallah: Lebanon could never be hostile to Syria   (2/17/2005)
  British newspaper suspicion Israel behind assassinating Hariri   (2/17/2005)
  Hariri's funeral procession   (2/17/2005)

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