Following car bombing in Lebanon, Annan urges all parties to protect national unity

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged all parties in Lebanon to protect national unity after a car bomb in the capital injured 11 people.

“The Secretary-General was deeply disturbed to learn of the explosion of a car bomb in Beirut in the early morning hours of 19 March,” a spokesman for Mr. Annan said in a statement released in New York.

With tension increasing in Lebanon, which has been in turmoil since the assassination in mid-February of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the Secretary-General appealed to all parties concerned “to exert utmost efforts to safeguard the stability and national unity of the country,” the spokesman said.