Lebanon’s Speaker Resigns, Adding to Government Crisis

BEIRUT — Parliament Speaker Hussein Husseini abruptly resigned today, compounding the governmental crisis sparked by the assassination of Prime Minister Rashid Karami five days ago.

Husseini, a Shia Muslim, announced his resignation at a hastily arranged news conference at his residence in Muslim West Beirut. All radio stations quickly interrupted their programs to announce the news.

Husseini, a close ally of Syria, said the assassination of Karami, a Sunni Muslim, on Monday resulted from “the penetration of the army Establishment.” He accused Maronite Christian President Amin Gemayel of “incapacity and hesitation.”

Karami, 65, also a Syrian ally, was killed by a bomb explosion aboard a military helicopter in which he was flying from his home in north Lebanon to Beirut.