Iran points finger at Israel for Beirut bombing
Iran points finger at Israel for… JPost – Iranian Threat – News.
Photo: reuters
DUBAI – Iran on Saturday condemned a car bomb attack in Beirut that killed a prominent Lebanese intelligence official on Friday and suggested that Israel was to blame.
A senior Israeli official dismissed the suggestion as “beyond pathetic”.
The slain Lebanese official, Brigadier-General Wissam al-Hassan, was close to several Lebanese politicians who back the uprising in Syria and led several investigations into Syrian meddling in Lebanese affairs, including one that implicated Damascus and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah in the assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri in 2005.
Iran is Syria’s most powerful regional ally.
“This action was taken with the aim of sowing dissension among different currents and segments of the Lebanese people and was conducted by an element who has never had in mind the interests of the Lebanese people and government and who only strives for its own impure interests and goals,” said a statement posted on the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s website.
“Without a doubt the main enemy of the people of Lebanon and the region is the Zionist regime (Israel), which benefits from insecurity and instability in the region,” ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said, according to the statement.
It offered no evidence for the suggestion of Israeli involvement.
Asked about Mehmanparast’s remarks, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said: “After the Iranian regime accused Israel of even the bad weather conditions prevailing in Iran, is there anything at all that they would not automatically blame on Israel? This is beyond pathetic. It’s pathological.” The Syrian government and Hezbollah condemned the bombing.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, whose government includes ministers from Hezbollah, said his government was trying to identify the perpetrators and they would be punished.
Iran’s Mehmanparast was quoted as calling for Lebanese national unity in the aftermath of the attack.
Hariri’s son, Saad al-Hariri, accused Assad of being behind the bombing while March 14, a anti-Assad Lebanese political bloc, called Hassan “one of the martyrs of the independence uprising (against Syria)”, adding that it was “a crime signed by Bashar Assad’s regime, his regional allies and local tools”.
The March 14 bloc called on Mikati’s government to resign.
Speaking shortly after the bombing, Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour told Reuters that his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi had condemned the bombing and planned to visit Beirut on Saturday.
Iran has been a stalwart ally of Assad as he fights a 19-month-old uprising, counting his government and Hezbollah as part of an “axis of resistance” against Western and Israeli influence in the region.
Lebanon’s religious communities are divided between those supporting Assad and those backing the Syrian rebels, leaving it vulnerable to spillover from the Syrian bloodshed.
WarSclerotic 
October 20, 2012 at 2:44 PM
this list points to the real culprit Oct. 19, 2012 – A car bomb blast in the Ashrafieh neighborhood of Beirut killed ISF Information branch chief Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan and at least three others, wounding more than 90.
Sept. 29, 2008 – A car bomb exploded near a public bus in Tripoli, killing five Lebanese Army soldiers and wounding 35 other passengers.
Aug. 13, 2008 – Sixteen people, including seven Lebanese Army soldiers, were killed by a bomb targeting a public bus in Tripoli.
Sept. 10, 2008 – A car bomb killed pro-Syrian Lebanese Democratic Party member Saleh Aridi in his hometown of Beysour, southeast of Beirut.
Jan. 25, 2008 – The ISF’s top anti-terrorism investigator Cpt. Wissam Eid and three others were killed while driving on the Hazmieh highway. Forty others were wounded in blast.
Jan. 15, 2008 – A bombing aimed at a U.S. diplomatic vehicle in the Karantina district of Beirut killed four Lebanese nationals, wounding 16.
Dec. 12, 2007 – A car bomb killed Gen. Francois al-Hajj, chief of operations in the Army, as well as his bodyguard and three others as they drove through the Beirut suburb of Baabda.
Sept. 19, 2007 – A car bomb killed anti-Syrian figure and Kataeb MP Antoine Ghanem and seven others in an explosion in Sin al-Fil, wounding 56.
June 13, 2007 – A car bomb killed Future Movement MP Walid Eido and nine others, including his son Khaled, near the Beirut waterfront.
Feb. 13, 2007 – Two bombs exploded on buses traveling from Bteghrine to the village of Ain Alaq, near Bikfaya, killing three and wounding 21.
Nov. 21, 2006 – Anti-Syrian figure and Kataeb party MP Pierre Gemayel was shot dead in his car in the Beirut suburb of Jdeideh.
Dec. 12, 2005 – Anti-Syrian MP and journalist Gebran Tueni was killed along with three others by a car bomb while driving through Beirut’s Mkalles.
Sept. 25, 2005 – LBC journalist and Syria critic May Chidiac was seriously wounded in a car bomb explosion in Jounieh.
Sept. 17, 2005 – A large explosion, believed to be a car bomb, in the Geitawi neighborhood of Ashrafieh killed one and wounded 22, damaging several nearby residences.
Aug. 22, 2005 – A bomb exploded outside a shopping center in Zalka, wounding eight.
July 22, 2005 – A car bombing on Monnot Street in Beirut wounded 12.
July 12, 2005 – An assassination attempt wounded pro-Syrian Defense Minister Elias Murr and killed two others in the Beirut suburb of Antelias.
June 21, 2005 – A car bomb killed former Lebanese Communist Party leader and anti-Syria figure George Hawi while driving through Beirut neighborhood of Mussaitbeh.
June 2, 2005 – A car bomb killed anti-Syrian figure and journalist Samir Kassir outside his home in Ashrafieh.
May 7, 2005 – A car bomb in a parked vehicle between the Sawt al-Mahaba radio station and Mar Yuhanna Church in Jounieh exploded, wounding 22 people and causing extensive damage.
Apr. 1, 2005 – A bomb exploded in Rizk Plaza in Broummana, wounding 12.
Mar. 26, 2005 – A car bomb in a vehicle parked between two factories exploded in Sadd al-Boushrieh area of Beirut, wounding six.
Mar. 23, 2005 – A bomb hidden in a leather bag exploded in a shopping center in Kaslik, killing one Pakistani and two Indian janitors, and also wounding two Lebanese.
Mar. 19, 2005 – A car bomb exploded in a commercial area of Jdeideh, north of Beirut, wounding 11.
Feb. 14, 2005 – A massive truck bomb killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others, including Economy Minister Bassel Fleihan, in front of St. Georges Hotel on the Beirut waterfront.
Oct. 1, 2004 – Anti-Syrian MP Marwan Hamadeh survived a car bomb assassination attempt that killed his driver.
October 20, 2012 at 7:21 PM
it is iran that is behind this bombing.
October 20, 2012 at 7:46 PM
yes and most of the others