GCC Condemns Tripoli Blasts, Warns of Sectarian Sedition

Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Abdullatif Al-Zayani condemned on Saturday the “terrorist” blasts that rocked the the northern city of Tripoli.

“Targeting worship places and innocent people is a vile criminal action,” al-Zayani said in a statement issued late on Friday.

He described the blasts as “a cowardly attempt to undermine the peaceful co-existence in Lebanon,” considering that it is an to “embroil the people of the country in hateful sectarian sedition.”

On Friday, powerful car bombs exploded outside two Sunni mosques in Tripoli, killing at least 45 people and wounding hundreds.

The first bomb struck in the city center at the al-Salam mosque as worshipers were still inside.

The second explosion struck just minutes later outside al-Taqwa mosque, about two kilometers away, near the port.

Al-Zayani reiterated calls on the Lebanese to abstain from involvement in the Syrian crisis for sake of preserving the country's security and stability.

In a broadcast speech he gave at a ceremony marking the end of the July 2006 war, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah explained that his combat in Syria is against Takfiris, vowing that he is “ready to personally go fight in Syria if necessary.”

Lebanon is officially neutral in Syria's conflict, but the country is deeply divided.