Lebanon denounces attack on magazine in Paris

BEIRUT: Former Prime Minsiter Saad Hariri along with Lebanon’s leading officials denounced an assault Wednesday on the Paris offices of a weekly satirical magazine that killed at least 12 people.

“The armed attack on the French capital is a clumsy stab targeting the chest of Islam and hundreds of thousands of Muslims that France has hosted for decades,” Hariri said in a statement released by his press office, noting that the act serves to hinder France’s Islamic relations.

According to Hariri, the “deplorable” terrorist crime is condemned by all Arabs and Muslims, who are standing beside France and the international community in the war against terror.

The former prime minister's comments came hours after hooded gunmen stormed the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine known for ridiculing radical Islam.

Sources at the weekly told Reuters that the dead included co-founder Jean "Cabu" Cabut and editor-in-chief Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier who were among ten members of the staff that killed during the assault.

The Future Movement Leader expressed his warm condolences to the families of the victims and voiced his solidarity with the French people and President Francois Hollande.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam joined in on the spate of condemnations as he expressed his condolences to the French President over the victims killed during the attack.

In a fax issued to Hollande Wednesday, Salam condemned the “unacceptable and unjustifiable terrorist act,” and expressed his “sympathy with the families of the victims during this painful circumstance.”

Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry also denounced the act and expressed its “full sympathy and solidarity with France’s government and its people in their war against terrorism.”

In a statement released Wednesday, the ministry noted that Lebanon has repeatedly warned against terrorism that knows no religion and no border. “Europe specifically is not immune it,” the statement read.

On the occasion of the assault, the Foreign Ministry reiterated its call on the international community to work in accordance with international law in order to uproot terrorism that “is linked to ideology and not just geography.”