Prime Minister Najib Miqati reportedly was “strongly affected” by the March 14 forces' statement that held him responsible for Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Wissam al-Hasan's assassination, said al-Akhbar newspaper on Saturday.

Informed sources told the daily that the statement prompted Miqati to inform Speaker Nabih Berri of his intention to resign, while the premier's circles questioned the March 14 forces' accusations against him.

The March 14 forces condemned on Friday the assassination of the head of the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan, holding Prime Minister Najib Miqati personally responsible for the crime.

It said in a statement after an extraordinary meeting in the wake of the assassination: “The government holds the political and moral accountability for the plan to target Lebanon's stability.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun condemned on Friday the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan, calling for calm to “confront organized crime,” reported OTV.

He told the television station: “We strongly condemn this crime and I call on the Lebanese people to act calmly.”

The Syrian National Council accused on Friday the “criminal regime” of Syrian President Bashar Assad of assassinating Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan.

It said in a statement: “We know very well those who are behind these criminal acts and for whom they are being done for.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Friday accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of ordering the assassination of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, chief of the Intelligence Bureau of the Internal Security Forces, warning that “we must not accuse anyone in Lebanon because we would be implementing what Bashar wants."

 "I openly accuse Bashar Assad and his regime of killing Wissam al-Hasan," Jumblat said.

The United States condemned Friday's deadly car bombing that killed Intelligence Bureau chief Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan as an act of terrorism.

"There is no justification for such violence," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. "It was a car bomb. We have no reason to believe it was not terrorism. We condemn this act of terrorism."

French President François Hollande on Friday urged all Lebanese officials to protect Lebanon from "all attempts at destabilization," following the bloody car bombing that killed Intelligence Bureau chief Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh district.

"The head of state calls on all Lebanese political officials to maintain Lebanon's unity and protect it from all attempts at destabilization, from wherever they come," Hollande said in a statement.

The Vatican strongly condemned Friday's attack in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh that killed eight people, including Intelligence Bureau chief Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan.

"The attack in Beirut deserves the strongest condemnation for its absurd murderous violence," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement, adding that the attack was "contrary to efforts and commitments to maintaining peaceful coexistence in Lebanon."

Roads across Lebanon were blocked on Friday as gunmen appeared on the streets of some regions and fired their weapons into the air, as news broke that Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, chief of the Intelligence Bureau of the Internal Security Forces, was assassinated in a powerful car bomb in the Beirut neighborhood of Ashrafiyeh.

The al-Beddawi highway in the North was blocked with burning tires, as well as the al-Mitain and Nejmeh Square streets in Tripoli.

Hizbullah on Friday described the assassination of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, chief of the Intelligence Bureau of the Internal Security Forces, as an “ugly crime” and an “vicious attempt to undermine stability and national unity.”

In a statement, the party “strongly” condemned “the abominable crime that targeted Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan.”