ESCWA Relocating HQ as ISF Pursues Gefinor Hoax Bomb Assailant

Security forces were able to identify the man who entered the United Nations offices in Gefinor Center in Clemenceau on Monday and threw flyers threatening of a bomb attack.

An Nahar newspaper reported on Tuesday that the man is an employee at the building and the Internal Security forces are pursuing him.

However, the reason behind the hoax bomb threat is still unknown.

The offices of the International Organization for Migration and the UNICEF were immediately evacuated by the U.N. security personnel.

Director of the U.N. Information Center in Beirut Bahaa el-Koussy told the national news agency “an unknown person entered the U.N. building Monday afternoon in order to transfer a box to the health center and threw leaflets which were handwritten in red saying “there is a bomb.”

Prime Minister Najib Miqati held talks on Monday with executive secretary of ESCWA Rima Khalaf.

Khalaf announced in a press conference that the U.N. is considering moving the U.N. headquarters to another building in Beirut until the construction of a new building in Dbayeh.

The security measures taken near the ESCWA will start dropping on Tuesday until the cabinet presents a temporary location for the headquarters, An Nahar said.

The roads near the U.N. building were closed on Friday and traffic was directed to nearby streets.

Agence France Presse reported on Sunday that Interior Minister Marwan Charbel has said the Internal Security forces had boosted security measures to protect the building from a possible threat.

However, Charbel denied later on in an interview with LBC television station the statements.

He stressed that tightening the security measures around the building was because employees fear an attack similar to an August bombing of the U.N. headquarters in the Nigerian capital Abuja.