UN urges restraint following latest Beirut bombing

The United Nations on Thursday called on all parties in Lebanon to exercise restraint following the second deadly car-bomb attack in Beirut in less than a week, and to support security forces as they seek to prevent further acts of terrorism. "This act follows the terrible bombing on 27 December and further reflects a deeply worrying escalation in the violence witnessed in Lebanon in recent months," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement issued by his office. The Security Council issued a statement reaffirming that "terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security." The 15-country council appealed to the Lebanese people to "preserve national unity in the face of attempts to undermine the country's stability and stressed the importance for all Lebanese parties to respect Lebanon's policy of disassociation and to refrain from any involvement in the Syrian crisis."