BEIRUT, 22 November 2006 — Prominent anti-Syrian Christian politician Pierre Gemayel was assassinated in a suburb of Beirut yesterday, increasing tensions in Lebanon amid a showdown between opponents and allies of Damascus that threatens to topple the US-backed government.

Gemayel, the industry minister, was the fifth anti-Syrian figure to be killed in the past two years and the first member of the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to be slain.

The assassination, in an afternoon shooting in Gemayel’s mainly Christian constituency of Jadeideh, threatens further instability in Lebanon at a time when Hezbollah and other parties allied with Syria are planning a massive wave of street protests unless Siniora reforms his government to give them more power.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah telephoned Gemayel’s father and former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel to convey his condolences. Amin Gemayel thanked the king for his gesture.

In Washington, the US State Department denounced the assassination as terrorism and an attempt to intimidate Siniora’s government. The United States has accused Syria and Iran of plotting to overthrow the government, which is dominated by anti-Syrian politicians.

“We are shocked by this assassination,” Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told reporters. “We will give full support to the Siniora government in the days and weeks ahead,” Burns said.

Syria also condemned the assassination. “This despicable crime aims to destroy stability and peace in Lebanon,” the state news agency said, affirming Syria’s keenness on Lebanon’s stability, security and unity.

To many people, the murder of Gemayel was not totally unexpected. Ramy Sultan, a Lebanese resident working in a private company in Saudi Arabia, said that he saw the assassination coming because of the boiling political situation in Lebanon after the assassination of Hariri and after Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon this year.

“I had relatives coming from Lebanon two weeks ago and they told me that the situation is not that good, that there is too much tension on the street,” said Sultan. “We as Lebanese people should prevent outside forces, whoever they are, from interfering in our decisions and driving us toward civil war. If we allow this to continue then hell will break loose.”

Sultan urged Lebanese leaders to sit and talk and put their differences aside for the sake of the unity.

Fadi Saleem, a Syrian doctor living in Jeddah, said that the only one that will benefit from the assassination is Israel. He said the Lebanese and Syrian people should prevent Israeli interference in the affairs of its neighbors. “Israel proved that they could not defeat the Hezbollah fighters in the south so they are now trying to create problems among the Lebanese people by highlighting the differences to bring Lebanon back to civil war,” said Saleem. “They are practicing the old saying of ‘divide and conquer’. If you cannot defeat them face to face then divide them from the inside so they become an easy target.”

Samir Hamza, a Lebanese working in Jeddah, blamed Syria for the killing. “The Lebanese minister commented on the Hezbollah march saying that it should be prevented,” he said. “I think Syria is retaliating against those that oppose the Syrian regime in Lebanon. The aim is to spur sectarianism and drive the country again toward civil war after many years of peace. Those who did this should be brought to justice. Syria should stop interfering in Lebanon and Hezbollah should be disarmed because they are taking orders from Iran. Lebanon should not be a battleground for others to settle their differences.”

Damascus’ opponents in Lebanon have accused Syria of being behind previous assassinations, particularly that of Rafik Hariri. Syria has denied any role.

Gemayel, 34, was driving in his car in Jadeideh when another vehicle rammed him from behind, then a gunmen stepped out of the vehicle and shot him at point-blank range. Footage from the scene showed Gemayel’s car, the driver’s-side window dotted by nearly a dozen bullet holes, and the second car behind it with a crumpled hood.

Gemayel was rushed to a nearby hospital seriously wounded, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. and Voice of Lebanon, the radio station run by his Phalange Party, reported.

The party radio later said he was dead, as did the National News Agency.

Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, broke off a televised news conference after hearing that Gemayel had been shot.

In an interview with CNN later, Hariri hailed Gemayel as “a friend, a brother to all of us” and appeared to break down after saying: “We will bring justice to all those who killed him.”

Hariri implicitly blamed Syria for the assassination, saying, “We believe the hand of Syria is all over the place.”

Gemayel was the scion of one of Lebanon’s most prominent political families and had been expected to carry it into the next generation. His father, current Phalange leader Amin Gemayel, served as Lebanon’s president between 1982 and 1988 and his grandfather, the late Pierre Gemayel, led the right-wing Christian Phalange Party that fielded the largest Christian militia and was allied with Israel during the 1975-90 civil war between Christians and Muslims.

Amin Gemayel’s brother, Bashir, was elected president in 1982 but was assassinated days before he was to take office in an explosion.

The slain Pierre Gemayel was a prominent figure in Lebanon’s anti-Syrian bloc, which dominates Siniora’s Cabinet and the Parliament — and which is now locked in a power struggle with Hezbollah and its allies.

On Sunday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened a wave of street protests aimed at bringing down the government if it ignores the group’s demand to form a national unity Cabinet, in which Hezbollah and its allies would have considerable influence and would be able to block major decisions.

Nasrallah accused Siniora’s government of falling under the influence of President Bush’s administration and called it “illegitimate” and “unconstitutional.” Gemayel’s assassination was the first since Gibran Tueni, prominent anti-Syrian newspaper editor and lawmaker, was killed in a car bomb in December. In June 2005, the journalist and activist Samir Kassir and former Communist Party leader George Hawi were killed in separate car bombings.

Meanwhile, gunmen opened fire on the office of a Lebanese minister of state, his office announced, just hours after the assassination of Gemayel.

“The office of the state minister for parliamentary affairs, Michel Pharaon, in the Ashrafieh neighborhood was the target of gunshots today from gunmen in a white Suzuki car,” it said.

“The security forces cordoned off the area and are carrying out the necessary measures to identify the culprits,” who fled the scene, it said. Pharaon is a Greek-Catholic Christian MP from the bloc of anti-Syrian parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri.

— With input from Mahmoud Ahmad