Beirut blasts aimed to promote terror: Elias Farhat

Press TV has conducted an interview with Elias Farhat, security affairs specialist, about two bomb attacks killing at least five people and injuring several others in south of the Lebanese capital Beirut.

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Please give us your thoughts on the appalling and horrific attacks that took place today in the Lebanese capital, the motives behind these attacks and also about the timing of the bombings?

Farhat: Once again terrorists struck south Beirut and this time they targeted an area which is full of some important buildings. One of it is the Kuwaiti Embassy, the other is the office of the cultural center of Iran in Lebanon and the Islamic orphanage as well as … Mohammad Zgheib for the Lebanese Army. And they targeted the innocent civilians who were crowded in that area. There are many vans for transport and people are waiting to take these vans southwards or eastwards of Beirut.

On the operational level this is the seventh terrorist attack and it failed to realize the real targets of these attacks. That is it only resulted in killing of civilians and did not result in destroying the building of the cultural center or any other buildings as the same for the other attacks. They targeted civilians and resulted [in] killing of civilians not any person or any figure or any position for the resistance or for Hezbollah as they say in their communiques.

This time the target now as far as the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam released in the media, they targeted the Iranian cultural center but actually there were no damage in the center and no one was injured.

The area is at the southern entrance of Beirut and it is not inside the suburb of Beirut as some media or [satellite] TVs said. In this area there are no special security measures at the entrances of the suburb of Beirut. So it is considered as entrance of Beirut rather than inside the suburb which they call it stronghold of Hezbollah.

It is easy for any…bomber to come and blow himself up with people here and in other places in Lebanon.

I think the aim of this attack is to terrorize more and to promote uncertainty among the people of Lebanon.