Posted on 10/01/2004 10:23:35 AM PDT by Mike Fieschko
Lebanese officials and foreign diplomats denounced the bomb attack that injured a minister on Friday, as a grave attack on Lebanon's democracy. The injured minister recently resigned over Syria's domination of the country.Outgoing Economy and Trade Minister Marwan Hamadeh was lightly wounded, his driver killed and his bodyguard slightly injured in the Friday morning attack outside Hamadeh's house on the capital's Mediterranean seafront.
President Emile Lahoud denounced what he said was an attack on "security and stability in Lebanon," while Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri ordered "security authorities to promptly uncover those behind this odious crime that targets all honorable men."
British Ambassador James Watts, one of a number of people to visit Hamadeh at the American University Hospital, said, "this is a very serious incident.
Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam arrived in Beirut on Friday afternoon and went straight to the hospital, which was crowded by angry friends and followers of Hamadeh.
Khaddam, who did not wish to make comments, went straight to check on Hamadeh.
US Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman and his French counterpart, Phillipe Le Courtier, also visited the hospital.
Lebanon's a democracy? So...they voted for Syrian domination?
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