The Syrian government slammed on Monday the assassination of Lebanese
Industry Minister, Pierre Gemayel, who was shot to death near Beirut,
on Tuesday.

The Syrian official news agency announced the condemnation shortly after Gemayel, the Christian political leader, was assassinated.

Meanwhile, Sa'ad Al Hariri, the son of the slain former Prime Minister, Rafiq Hariri, accused Syria of responsibility for the assassination. Hariri described the assassination as “an act of a coward regime”.

“Today, one of the main believer of a free and democratic Lebanon has been killed”, Hariri stated, “”We believe that the hands of Syria are all over this attack”.

The United States denounced the assassination and said that it is a terrorist attack that aims at intimidating the “already troubled government coalition in Lebanon”.

Pierre Amin Gemayel was born on 1972 in Bekfaya. He was first elected as a deputy in 200, and in 2005, he was re-elected as MP in 2005 from Metn, the second district of Mount Lebanon. Gemayel was a member of the Maronite Christian Qornet Shehwan group.

Meanwhile, the Lebanon based Hezbollah movement, strongly denounced the assassination, and considered it as a security breach in the Lebanese security system.