Following the Tuesday terrorist bombings in front of the Iranian embassy in Beirut, Amir Abdollahian left for Lebanon in the early hours of Wednesday morning to study and pursue the ongoing situation and developments after the deadly bombings.
The Iranian official, who is currently in Beirut, is slated to hold meetings with the Lebanese officials in charges on the recent attacks.
He is also scheduled to meet those wounded in the yesterday attacks as well as the families of the victims.
The two bomb blasts killed 23 people and injured 146 others on Tuesday. The attack targeted just 10 meters away from Iranian embassy in Beirut’s Southern neighborhood of Jinah, inflicting much damage to the compound.
The main gate of the Iranian Embassy was blown out by the first explosion, and the second blast happened just meters away from the embassy.
Iran's Cultural Attache in Beirut Ebrahim Ansari was among those killed in the attack.
A Lebanese government source said Ansari was entering the embassy as the blasts took place, adding that the Iranian official died of his wounds at a Beirut hospital.
Head of the Iranian Embassy’s security team and five of his men have also been among more than two dozen people killed in the twin blasts which struck an area near the embassy compound in Beirut Tuesday morning.
"Rezwan Fares, a Lebanese national who was in charge of the security of the Iranian embassy in Beirut and was also known as Hajj Reza, and the Ambassador's personal bodyguard stopped the suicide-bomber from entering the embassy compound and opened fire on him, when the suicide-bomber exploded his jacket," local officials told FNA's bureau in Beirut Tuesday afternoon.
"Five of the embassy guards were also killed in the blasts today," the report added.
Iran's Ambassador to Lebanon Qazanfar Roknabadi also said that Zionists have been behind the bombing.
Roknabadi said none of the embassy staffers has been harmed in the attack, but he confirmed the death of Ansari.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati described the bombings as "a cowardly terrorist act".
Miqati was quoted by Lebanese NNA news agency as saying that the aim of the attacks was to "stir-up the situation in Lebanon".
"We have asked the security apparatuses to speed up the investigations to uncover and arrest the perpetrators."
Also, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Marziyeh Afkham strongly condemned the attack as "an inhuman action", and said, "The Islamic Republic of Iran takes the Zionists and their mercenaries responsible for this action."
Afkham said since the attack targeted an area in the vicinity of the Iranian Embassy compound in Beirut, Tehran will pursue the incident.
Senior parliamentary officials said Tuesday evening that the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian legislature is due to convene in the coming days to discuss the Tuesday’s twin bomb blasts.
Rapporteur of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Hossein Naqavi Hosseini condemned the attack as "blind terror" by "terrorists affiliated to the global arrogance".
He told FNA that his commission would study and pursue the terrorist blast in front of the Iranian embassy in Lebanon, adding that the commission is already gathering information about the incident.
Also, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani strongly condemned the twin bomb blasts in Beirut, and reiterated that such terrorist acts can no way undermine Tehran’s support for the Islamic resistance movement in Lebanon.
