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Syria rejects accusations
22/09/2007 18:38 - (SA)
Damascus - Syria on Saturday rejected as "baseless and without proof" accusations by Lebanon's ruling coalition that Damascus was behind Wednesday's killing of Lebanese MP Antoine Ghanem.
The anti-Syrian MP was killed by a car bomb in a Beirut suburb less than a week before Lebanon's parliament is due to elect a new head of state to replace the pro-Damascus incumbent Emile Lahoud.
Syria's Information Minister Mohsen Bilal, in a statement published on Saturday, said: "Accusations made against Syria by the forces of March 14 (the ruling coalition), which are linked to a foreign plan, are allegations without foundation and lacking proof."
In his comments in the government newspaper Tishrin, Bilal added: "Syria does not intervene in any way in Lebanese internal affairs. It works for entente between all Lebanese in favour of a president who would represent them all, because Syria is in favour of Lebanon's security, stability and unity."
The accusations that Damascus was behind Ghanem's killing came from Saad Hariri, head of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.
"The one who killed Antoine Ghanem and his companions ... is the enemy who wishes evil on Lebanon and Syria and who wants to divide still more the two countries and sabotage initiatives aiming at Lebanese national harmony.
"This enemy wants to sow chaos in Lebanon to enable external plans to be achieved in the region," the minister said.
Ghanem, 64, is the eighth anti-Syrian personality to be killed since the February 2005 killing of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.
Syria's state news agency Sana on Wednesday "strongly denounced the explosion that killed Lebanese deputy Antoine Ghanem and other Lebanese citizens".
- AFP
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