CAIRO: Sources in Cairo have told the Egyptian press that Lebanese security foiled an assassination attempt on Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, close to the Lebanese-Syrian border Saturday night.
Moussa was in Lebanon to mediate between rival political parties to try and resolve the country’s political deadlock.
According to the sources, Lebanese security spotted a suspicious-looking car parked close to the border and destroyed it. It is unknown whether the car contained explosives.
The car is said to have been owned by an Egyptian national living in Lebanon who has been named “Hisham A.D. Lebanese authorities, in cooperation with their Egyptian counterparts, are currently searching for him.
A spokesman for the Arab League, Abdel Alim El-Abyad, told Daily News Egypt that there were no further clues as to the identity of the car-owner, or what interests may have been behind the alleged assassination attempt.He said that Moussa was unperturbed by the event and was currently back at work.
“Everything is okay, he is back in the office, El-Abyad said. “We have no further details for now, apart from what [Moussa] has said himself. Walid Kazziha, a political science professor at the American University in Cairo, believes that both the lack of information available and the “discovery of the car bomb – which is a common form of assassination in Lebanon – indicate that the assassination attempt was a “fabrication. “This was made up by the Seniora government, he told Daily News Egypt. “How did they discover this bomb before it blew up? Car bombs are never discovered, he said, referring to the recent car bomb targeting US diplomats, which killed three passersby and wounded 26.
Emad Gad, a researcher at the Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, said that anyone with an interest in preventing a peaceful resolution to Lebanon’s political crisis could be behind the alleged attempt on Moussa’s life.
Israel, Syria, Iran and non-state actors like militant fundamentalist groups would all stand accused, he said.
“This was a message to Arab and foreign partners in the Lebanese process to stop their efforts. There are many people interested in perpetuating the Lebanese impasse, said Gad.
