UN chief condemns Lebanon car bombing
UNITED NATIONS (Agencies)
The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the car bombing that left a Lebanese Druze politician dead near Beirut and urged rival parties to show restraint.
"I condemn yesterday's car bombing and urge restraint," the U.N. boss told a press conference. "This violence only underscores how important it is for dialogue and reconciliation to move forward."
The Security Council also joined Ki-moon in condemning the car bombing in Beirut.
The UN Security Council also "condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attack" which killed Saleh Aridi, a member of Lebanon's opposition Democratic Party, and injured six others in a car bomb blast in his hometown of Baysur, southeast of Beirut.
In a statement read by Burkina Faso's U.N. Ambassador Michel Kafando, who chairs the 15-member body this month, council members underlined the need to bring the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of the bombing to justice.
The EU's French presidency also condemned the murder of Aridi and stressed the bloc's readiness to help bring to justice those carrying out terrorist acts.
The EU presidency "very strongly condemns the attack which cost the life of Mr Saleh Aridi," said a statement, issued by the foreign ministry of France, which holds the EU's rotating presidency.
The EU "reaffirms its engagement alongside Lebanon in the fight to bring the authors and commanders of terrorist acts to justice," it added.
The EU presidency urged all parties involved to continue the process initiated by the Doha accord, which was struck on May 21 between Lebanon's rival political factions to end the protracted political crisis in Lebanon.
Aridi's violent death came as Lebanon's political parties prepared for a national dialogue next week aimed at reconciling their differences, which in May brought the country close to civil war.
The national dialogue due to begin next Tuesday is set to focus on forming a "national defense strategy" in which the relationship between militias and the army in defending the country is to be defined.