Lebanon's officials and figures highly condemned the two suicide attacks that jolted Damascus on Friday, as two booby-trapped cars exploded near two state security buildings, killing at least 44 persons and 166 injuries.

Beirut - Taqrib News Agency (TNA) - According to Syrian state-run television, primary investigations revealed that Al-Qaeda was behind the attacks. 

Lebanese President of the Republic, Michel Sleiman, on Friday contacted by phone Syrian President Bashar Assad and sternly lambasted the attacks in Damascus today. 

Sleiman saw that the clampdown indeed aims to sap the few-day-old Arab League plan, as it coincides with the arrival of monitors' team in Syria. 

Similarly, House Speaker Nabih Berri, in a cable to Syrian President Bashar Assad, Berri expressed his heartfelt condolences to the families of the fallen victims.

From his side Lebanese Foreign Minister Andan Mansour strongly condemned the barbaric criminal acts.

In a statement issued on Friday evening, Mansour said that this heinous crime is the newest in a series of crimes committed against the Syrian people and national army, which are aimed at undermining Syria and threatening the unity of the Syrian people.

In his turn, Marada leader, Member of Parliament Sleiman Franjieh, reckoned that the attacks target the Arab League's deal over Syrian crisis resolution, signed earlier this week in Cairo.
 
In a statement, the former Lebanese President Emil Lahoud vehemently condemned the two explosions in Damascus, saying that these terrorist acts indicate the defeat of the conspiracy against Syria's role and resistant positions. 

President Lahoud voiced solidarity with Syrian leadership and people, and their efforts to uproot the terrorism which came from outside. 

For his part, Dr. Amin Hoteit, strategic expert and researcher from Lebanon, said the twin terrorist attacks indicate that the agents of the West and Israel have started carrying out the terrorist acts plan after the failure of the Zionist-American-European plot to undermine Syria.

He noted that the US administration has now turned to implementing in Syria the same scheme it used in Afghanistan and Iraq, through directing al-Qaeda and its Takfiri agents into killing civilians.