ALSO SEE: Lebanon's Entire Cabinet Resigns After Massive Protests

Lebanon's Prime Minister Announces He Will Resign Amid Large Protests Following Last Week's Beirut Blast

By Louisa Loveluck and Suzan Haidamous, The Washington Post

10 August 20

 

ebanon's prime minister on Monday announced his intention to resign amid public fury over official negligence that led to an explosion so massive that it devastated swaths of the capital.

The blast erupted Tuesday in a warehouse on Beirut’s port that contained 2750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, stored there for years despite repeated warnings that it was unsafe. The explosion killed at least 160 people, wounded more than 6,000, and left as many as 300,000 homeless.

In a televised address, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said a level of corruption “bigger than this government” precipitated the events that led to the blast.

“Only God knows how many catastrophes they are hiding,” he said, in an apparent reference to the country’s ruling elite. “That’s why I have announced my resignation today. May Allah protect Lebanon. May Allah protect Lebanon. May Allah protect Lebanon.”

Diab’s successor will need to form a new cabinet.

As Beirut emerges from its shock, it has mostly been the people, and not the authorities, sweeping the rubble and glass from the streets. Protesters have clashed with security forces and occupied state ministries. They have also hanged nooses in a public square and demanded the death penalty for members of the ruling elite.

Decades of corruption and mismanagement had already left Lebanon in the throes of economic calamity, with the value of the currency shattering and hundreds of thousands of Lebanese sinking below or close to the poverty line in a matter of weeks. Tuesday’s explosion caused widespread damage to Beirut’s port and destroyed the country’s main grain silo at a time when reserves are low and some food prices have already tripled in the space of a year.

Aoun has rejected calls for an international probe into the circumstances surrounding the explosion, saying it will “delay” justice for the dead. But activists say a Lebanese investigation will allow the corrupt political elite to avoid accountability.

The state-run National News Agency said Monday that Maj. Gen. Tony Saliba, the head of the Lebanese State Security, had been questioned by a judge. It gave no details, but other generals are scheduled to be questioned.

As Diab prepared to announce his resignation Monday, protesters thronged the streets of downtown Beirut for a third day as security forces used tear gas to try to push them back. The Lebanese Red Cross said it had taken two demonstrators to the hospital and treated 23 at the scene. “Operation ongoing, updates shortly,” it said.