Top Lebanese officials firmly deplored the terror attacks in the United States on Tuesday as Information Minister Ghazi Aridi cautioned against “impulsive” accusations.
President Emile Lahoud offered his condolences to President George W. Bush, denouncing the “tragedies” that struck New York and Washington. He instructed the embassy in the US capital to inquire about the well-being of Lebanese expatriates in the United States.
In separate statements, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Rafik Hariri also condemned the attacks and offered their condolences to the Bush administration and the American people. Hariri said he was “deeply shocked by the actions that contradict the values of humanity and religions.”
Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud cabled his condolences to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, and contacted the embassy for word on Lebanese expatriates. But there was no firm word on whether any members of the community were on the hijacked planes used in the attacks or at the targets.
Coincidentally, incoming US Ambassador Vincent Battle landed at Beirut International Airport to assume his post at 4.45pm, half an hour after the first strike in New York. But he declined to comment.
Aridi, too, expressed sorrow over the tragedy, which he said has “perhaps resulted in more human casualties than any single country has sustained” since the world wars.
But while other officials declined to speculate on the repercussions, Aridi offered hints as to the lessons that needed to be drawn.
Because of the enormity of the tragedy, he said, “it is important to avoid hasty analysis or impulsive accusations.”
In a telephone interview with The Daily Star, Aridi said the apparent suicide attacks “will leave their marks on this century.”
In terms of timing, results and the way they were carried out, he added, the attacks “will have a long-term impact on humanity and on the security, economy and politics of the United States.”
Tuesday’s events, he said, proved that no country in the world was immune, “irrespective of military might or technological superiority.”
As such, Aridi suggested that the United States should build on the worldwide sympathy toward its plight to reconsider some of its international relations and policies which have earned it enemies.
“There’s a need for re-examining the ‘New World Order’ and the proposed globalization. There’s a need for more cooperation and for building relations based on the respect for the rights of people and not the logic of force,” he said, indirectly referring to US support for Israel.
“Technology, weapons and money will not establish global peace or lead to economic stability,” the minister said. “There’s a need to rethink international relations on the basis of the rights of people and a just distribution of wealth.”
But more importantly, he insisted, the developments have proved the extent of threat to world stability, concluding that it was imperative “to eliminate all weapons of mass destruction so that they might not be used at some impulsive moment and result in even bigger catastrophes.