Mubarak: identifying those behind Lebanon killings 'premature'

Mubarak warned against "a return to violence in Lebanon," following the assassination Tuesday of Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, the daily Al-Ahram reported Saturday.

He called on all Lebanese "to continue dialogue with a positive attitude and good will, to avoid slipping the country back to a dangerous slope, which brings back the memory of the difficult and sad days of Lebanon's (15-year civil war)," the paper quoted Mubarak as saying.

A UN commission of inquiry into the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri is now also providing assistance to the Lebanese investigation of Gemayel's murder.

"The UN commission's task is to uncover the truth behind the string of assassinations which preceded and followed the Hariri (assassination) including the latest criminal event which killed the Lebanese Industry minister," Mubarak said.

But "it is premature to define the identity of those who committed the assassinations," he said, without elaborating.

The UN Security Council this week endorsed a plan to create an international court to try those eventually indicted for the assassination last year of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri.

The deal was unanimously approved on Tuesday, hours after Gemayel became the latest victim in a series of politically motivated attacks dating back to October 2004.

The killings of Hariri and Gemayel, as well as those of others, have widely been blamed on Syria, the former powerbroker in neighboring Lebanon, and on its allies in the country. Damascus has roundly denied such charges.

Source

About headlines and content that has changed after it was added to this site - see disclaimer here

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.