Iranian officials receive condolences over twin blasts victims

Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amir Abdellahian and the Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi started Wednesday receiving condolences at the Iranian Embassy over the death of the victims of the twin blasts that hit the embassy on Tuesday.  

Lebanese senior officials arrived to offer their condolences, including caretaker ministers Mohammad Fneish, Hussein Hajj Hassan, former President Emile Lahoud and a delegation from Amal Movement leadership.

Also among the mourners were the British ambassador Tom Fletcher and the Russian ambassador Alexander Saspkin.  

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.  

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.