UN concerned about security situation in Lebanon

UNITED NATIONS - ?A senior UN official has told the Lebanese government that the world body has been closely following with concern the recent security incidents in the country, particularly the kidnappings targeting Syrian nationals and others, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said at a daily news briefing held here Thursday.

The deputy UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Robert Watkins, told Lebanese Interior Minister Marwan Chabel during their meeting in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, that "the Organization also expressed deep regret for the loss of life in the clashes that have been taking place over the past few days in the city of Tripoli" in the northern part of the Middle East country, Nesirky said.

Violent clashes erupted on Monday between residents of the Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh and Alawite Jabal Mohsen neighborhoods of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, and fighting between the two rival neighborhoods have intensified on Tuesday and left two people dead and more than 35 others injured.

"All of these incidents undermine the efforts that many in Lebanon have been exerting to promote peace, stability and long- term development," Nesirky said, quoting Watkins.

"And he said that he agreed with the interior minister that the Lebanese State has a moral responsibility to protect innocent people, including Syrian nationals, many of whom are refugees seeking shelter from the violence in their own country, the spokesman said.

Watkins will meet with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati later this week, the spokesman added.

The al-Meqdad family, a powerful clan in Lebanon, announced early this week that its "military wing" has kidnapped several Syrians and a Turkish national in retaliation to the abduction last week of Hassan al-Meqdad by armed rebels in Damascus, the Syrian capital.

The senior UN official said that the secretary-general "has strongly condemned kidnappings and retaliatory hostage-taking in Syria and Lebanon and called for an immediate release of all those detained without due process and in violation of their human rights."