MP Aoun denounces Bir el-Hassan suicide attack, questions cabinet failure in convening

Change and Reform Bloc Leader MP Michel Aoun denounced on Tuesday the blasts that targeted Beirut Southern Suburbs Bir al-Hassan region, saying that “those behind such attacks are expressing their non-adherence to all international treaties.” 

Following the bloc’s weekly meeting, MP Aoun questioned the government’s failure in convening to tackle the country’s most prominent issues, calling on Lebanese President Michel Sleiman and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to bear their responsibilities in safeguarding the Lebanese constitution.
           
A double suicide attack targeted on Tuesday, November 19 the Iranian embassy in south Beirut’s Bir el-Hassan region, killing at least 23 people, wounding 146 and damaging buildings in the embassy compound.                           

Live footage from local news channels showed charred bodies on the ground as flames rose from the remains of several vehicles. Aid workers and residents carried away some of the victims on blankets.           

Caretaker Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil stated that the Cultural Attache of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Sheikh Ibrahim Ansari was killed in the blasts. Ansari took his post in Lebanon a month ago and was overseeing all regional cultural activities.

The Abdullah Azzam brigades, a Lebanon-based al Qaeda affiliate, said it was behind a double suicide attack on the Iranian embassy.