BEIRUT: Western officials joined Lebanese leaders Tuesday in condemning the two deadly suicide bombings that targeted the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and senior foreign officials using the incident to reiterate support for Lebanon’s stability.

Lebanese leaders, meanwhile, called for national unity in the face of attempts to destabilize the country.

President Michel Sleiman telephoned his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani and Ambassador to Beirut Ghazanfar Ruknabadi to condemn the attack. He called for national unity and urged the Lebanese to remain vigilant in the face of security threats present in the country as a result of the conflict next door.

“Such criminal messages do not alter convictions but merely yield the deaths of innocent people,” said Sleiman, who was in Kuwait to attend an Arab-African summit. [Link]