"Assassination" of 1st. LT. Samer Hanna is a "national disaster."
Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar described President Michel Suleiman as an "iron fist in a silk glove."
Najjar, who represents the Lebanese Forces in Premier Fouad Saniora”s cabinet, made the remark in an interview with the daily al-Anwar.
Hizbullah, according to Najjar, is repeating the Phalange Party”s slogan for the early 1970s, just before outbreak of the civil war, along the lines that "the state is crippled and they have to replace it."
"We were wrong and they are wrong now," said Najjar, who started his political career as Phalange Party member.
Najjar said the attack by Hizbullah gunmen on a Lebanese Army helicopter in the southern Sujud region was a "horrible act. But Lebanon wouldn”t collapse by a catastrophe and wouldn”t fall apart by the fall of a helicopter."
He said the "assassination" of 1st. LT. Samer Hanna, the helicopter”s pilot, is a "national disaster."
Najjar called for proceeding with the judicial investigation into the Sujud attack.