US embassy strongly condemns Chatah's assassination, reiterates support to state's institutions

The United States through its embassy in Beirut strongly condemned on Friday the "terrorist attack" that targeted the former Minister of Finance Mohammad Chatah, noting that he had a long history of promoting Lebanon’s stability and democratic principles inland and abroad as part of his duties in the Lebanese government as well as while serving as Lebanon's ambassador to Washington and to the International Monetary Fund.

The US urged the Lebanese authorities to take the necessary measures in order to carry out an accurate investigation and bring the persons involved in the attack to justice, reiterating its support to the Lebanese Armed Forces, and the Internal Security Forces as being "the legal Lebanese state institutions that protect all Lebanese people."

The embassy reiterated its commitment Lebanon in light of the attack, calling for the implementation of the resolutions issued by the United Nations Security Council, including 1559 and 1701, as well as the Taef agreement and the Baabda Declaration "as a way to support Lebanon's stability, safety and freedom.

Former Lebanese minister Mohamad Chatah, who opposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was killed in a massive bomb blast which one of his political allies blamed on Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah party.

Friday's attack also killed five other people and threw Lebanon, which has been drawn into neighboring Syria's conflict, into further turmoil after a series of sectarian bombings aimed at Shi'ites and Sunnis over the past year.