JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia strongly condemned the terrorist bombing that killed at least three people and wounded more than a hundred in Beirut on Friday.
"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia denounces this criminal act which targeted the security and stability of Lebanon," the Saudi Press Agency quoted an unnamed official saying.
"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia stresses the importance of arresting the perpetrators, because ignoring such an act would lead to chaos, assassination of honest people and undermining the security of Lebanon," the SPA report added.
The kingdom has expressed condolences to the Lebanese president, the families of the victims and the brotherly people of Lebanon, wishing the injured people a speedy recovery.
One of those killed in the bombing was Brigadier Wissam Al-Hassan, intelligence chief of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces (ISF).
Friday's attack in Ashrafieh, an upmarket mostly Christian district of Beirut, was one of the highest-profile killings since the 2005 murder of former premier Rafiq Hariri.
Lebanese authorities have called a day of national mourning for those killed.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati office said the “size and tragic consequences of this heinous crime is a source of severe pain and sadness to the prime minister.”
Syria blames the “terrorist, cowardly” attack on Israel and Hezbollah said the attack was “an attempt to destabilize Lebanon and national unity.”
But former Premier Saad Hariri and Walid Jumblatt, the influential Druze leader, accused the Syrian president of being behind the bombing.
“We accuse Bashar Assad of the assassination of Wissam Al-Hassan, the guarantor of the security of the Lebanese,” said Hariri.
Jumblatt told AFP, “the Syrian regime is expert in political assassinations. Our response needs to be political. A president who burns Syria and is the executioner of Damascus does not care if Lebanon burns.”
Hassan was known to be close to the assassinated former premier, whose killing in February 2005 was largely blamed on Syria.
At the time of Hariri’s murder, Lebanon was occupied by Syrian troops who had entered during the civil war under an Arab League mandate.
The outcry that followed Hariri’s murder prompted Damascus to withdraw, but Syria still exerts a strong influence.
No one has ever been tried for Hariri’s murder, but a UN-backed tribunal has indicted four Hezbollah members who are still at large.
