Bahaa Al-Hariri: #Hizbullah controls the #Beirut port, and we urgently need an immediate international investigation into the explosion#BaghdadPost #BeirutBlast #PrayForLebanon pic.twitter.com/JbJShFLpa3
— The Baghdad Post (@BaghdadPostPlus) August 7, 2020
#Lebanese health minister: The death toll among #Beirut port balst rises to 154.#BaghdadPost #BeirutBlast #PrayForLebanon pic.twitter.com/Pkj0KqOGsL
— The Baghdad Post (@BaghdadPostPlus) August 7, 2020
#Lebanon's President #Aoun rejected calls for an international probe into the tragic #Beirut port blast, saying it would "of course" dilute the truth.#BaghdadPost #BeirutBlast #PrayForLebanon pic.twitter.com/D1xN5aBP86
— The Baghdad Post (@BaghdadPostPlus) August 7, 2020
#BREAKING | Lebanon's #Hezbollah denies storing arms at blast site #BaghdadPost #BeirutBlast #PrayForLebanon pic.twitter.com/IDCrarbuZJ
— The Baghdad Post (@BaghdadPostPlus) August 7, 2020
Lebanon president says he knew of highly explosive material at Beirut's port in July
[Al Ahram] Lebanese President Michel Aoun
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
knew about the huge stockpile of kaboom stored at Beirut's port nearly three weeks before it blew up, he said Friday, adding he had ordered action be taken about it at the time, although the top leader also said he had no authority over the facility."Do you know how many problems have been accumulating?" Aoun replied when a news hound pressed whether he should have followed up on his order.
Aoun's comments were the most senior confirmation that Leb
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...'s top leaders and security officials were aware of the 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate that had been stored at the port for years.
The chemicals went
kaboom!Tuesday after apparently being set off by a fire, in a massive blast that killed nearly 150 people, maimed thousands and caused billions of dollars of damage across the city. Bodies were still being recovered from the rubble on Friday.
Investigators are probing the blast and have focused on personnel at the Port of Beirut - Lebanon's main port that is so well known for corruption its common nickname is Ali Baba's Cave. But many Lebanese say it points to much greater rot that permeates the political system and extends to the country's top leadership.
Aoun, who has been in his post since 2016, said previous governments had known about the danger of the stockpile since it was confiscated from a ship impounded in 2013.
"The material had been there for seven years, since 2013. It has been there, and they said it is dangerous and I am not responsible. I don't know where it was placed. I don't even know the level of danger," Aoun told a news conference.
He said that when he was told of the stockpile June 20, he immediately ordered military and security officials "to do what is needed."
"There are ranks that should know their duties, and they were all informed. ... When you refer a document and say, `Do what is needed,' isn't that an order?" he added.