26 August 2013
BEIRUT: The wave of deadly car bombings that rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs and the northern city of Tripoli recently has prompted the Amal Movement to postpone its annual rally to commemorate the disappearance of its founder, missing Shiite Imam Musa Sadr.
The rally, originally scheduled to take place in the southern town of Nabatieh next Saturday, was postponed due to the security situation in the country, according to a statement released by Speaker Nabih Berri’s office.
The postponement decision was taken following an emergency meeting of senior Amal officials chaired by Berri, leader of the Shiite movement, which reviewed the local and regional situation following “developments that threatened to destabilize Lebanon.”
In a statement issued after the meeting, Amal cited the Aug. 15 car bombing in the Hezbollah stronghold of Ruwaiss in the southern suburbs that left 30 people dead and over 300 wounded, and the twin blasts outside two Sunni mosques in Tripoli that killed 45 people and wounded over 500 last Friday, in addition to “Israel’s terrorist plots against Lebanon” as reasons for postponing the rally to commemorate the 35th anniversary of Sadr’s disappearance. The rally will be held at a later date yet to be announced.
It added that the decision was designed to foil attempts to carry out more explosions and random killings in the country.
The rally will be replaced with a televised speech by Berri at 5:30 p.m. next Saturday, the same time that the demonstration was to be held, the Amal statement said.
Copyright The Daily Star 2013.
