Permanent U.N. Security Council Members Ambassadors Stress to Suleiman Need for Calm in Lebanon

The ambassadors to Lebanon of the five permanent United Nations Security Council members held talks on Monday with President Michel Suleiman on the current security situation in Lebanon.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly said after the meeting that the five countries support the president's efforts to ease the tensions and put an end to the security chaos.

The members of the Security Council call on all sides to maintain national unity, he said.

It is up to the Lebanese powers to decide which path they want to take in Lebanon, he added.

“The meeting was held at our request to underline our solidarity with Lebanon at this difficult time,” continued Plumbly.

It is important for the Lebanese powers to seek the peaceful political course, maintain the functioning of the state institutions, and preserve security, stability, and justice in Lebanon, stressed Plumbly after the ambassadors of the U.S., UK, China, France, and Russia held talks with Suleiman at the Baabda Palace.

“We will stand by Lebanon through this difficult period,” he declared on behalf of the ambassadors.

Armed clashes broke out in various regions in Lebanon in light of Friday's assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan, which Plumbly and the ambassadors deemed as a “heinous act of terrorism.”

“In their statement Security Council members underlined their determination that the perpetrators and sponsors of this terrorist act should be brought to justice, and their unequivocal condemnation of any attempt to destabilize Lebanon through political assassination and expressed their determination to support the government of Lebanon and to put an end once and for all to impunity in Lebanon,” he added.

The clashes erupted in some neighborhoods in Beirut and the rival districts of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen in the northern city of Tripoli.

At least three people have been killed in the clashes that broke out on Sunday.