Beirut explosion puts Lebanese government in check
Lebanese society continues to demand answers. Outrage with the political class has claimed its first victims in the Lebanese Executive, the Ministers of Information, Environment and Justice, while demonstrations continue in the capital, in protest of the explosion that on Tuesday devastated a part of Beirut, killing more than 150 people and injuring at least 6,000, according to the latest official data.
Corruption and the economic crisis plaguing Lebanon have unleashed public anger. The history of the country of cedars changed completely on 17 October, when the government announced new fiscal measures. This announcement led thousands of people of different religions and social classes in the country to protest, demanding economic and social reforms and changes in the political sphere, which they accused of corruption. Nine months later, political instability has led thousands of people to demand change by increasing pressure on the Executive.
Lebanon's Information Minister resigned on Sunday after protests in the country led to the death of a policeman and the injury of more than 250 people. Manal Abdel Samad announced her departure "apologizing to the Lebanese people for not fulfilling their aspirations". "Change remained elusive. Since the reality did not match the aspirations, and after the horror of the Beirut disaster, I am resigning from the government," he said in a statement to the Arab News. The culpability has led the head of the Environment portfolio, Damianos Kattar, to submit his resignation. "My children's friends were killed during the explosion in Beirut and I cannot continue to carry out these responsibilities in the ministry," he said during a ministerial meeting with Prime Minister Hassan Diab.
Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najm and a number of MPs have just submitted their resignation in writing to the head of government. Najm has not waited for the cabinet meeting scheduled for this afternoon at the presidential palace in Baabda which will address this crisis.
These successive resignations come after the MPs of the Kataeb party, a small political formation with three seats in Parliament, announced their resignation in order to come forward with all honest Lebanese for the sake of a sovereign and independent Lebanon'. However, the political crisis in Lebanon had led the foreign minister to tender his resignation even before this tragedy took place, lamenting "his failure to manage the crisis and implement the necessary measures to save the country".
The Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, has called a monitoring session on Sunday for the government to respond to possible negligence in the tragedy that occurred last Tuesday. The session will take place next Thursday at noon and will discuss with the government "the crime that has afflicted the capital and the people". "We are facing a great problem. A crime has taken place through negligence, and there is a huge humanitarian tragedy that requires an international investigation to find out who is responsible for this crime," Berri told digital Arab News.
After this disaster, Lebanon's Prime Minister Hasan Diab considered that the best way out of this crisis was through early elections and announced that he was willing to lead a cabinet for two months to hold these elections. I call on the parties to agree on the next step (...) I will propose on Monday at (the meeting of) the cabinet to call for early elections," he said.
While rescue efforts continue in the country, Lebanon's President Michel Aoun rejected an international investigation into this catastrophic explosion, further increasing the anger of the population. Lebanese Forces Party leader Samir Geagea has used the social networking site Twitter to announce that they are "making the necessary calls ? to collect enough resignations and hold early parliamentary elections as soon as possible. However, Aoun remains firm in his theory that "the demand for an international investigation is aimed at misleading the truth. The sentence will be meaningless if it takes too long to be issued. The judiciary must be quick because justice delayed is not fair. It must be immediate and unhurried to determine who is a criminal and who is innocent," he said.
"Military teams working at the blast site used precise sensors to find out if there were chemical, radiological or biological materials, but none were found," an officer from the Lebanese Army Engineering Regiment told Arab News. A military diver interviewed by the same newspaper said that when he went underwater to look for bodies, he found dead turtles and we recovered a body that was thrown from the explosion 500 metres away from the site". Meanwhile, the Beirut port administration has stepped up its efforts to resume activities as soon as possible in the undamaged parts of this facility. The Lebanese Army, for its part, has completed the first phase of search and rescue efforts.
Lebanese Prosecutor General Ghassan al Khoury began on Monday to take statements from those responsible for the State security sections in connection with Tuesday's explosion. For the moment, al Khoury has taken testimony from the director general of the State Security Service, General Tony Saliba, at the Palace of Justice in Beirut, according to information published by the National News Agency (ANN).
At the opening of the international conference in support of Beirut, French President Emmanuel Macron called on the country's authorities to conduct an independent investigation. "This offer of help also includes support for an impartial, credible and independent investigation into the causes of the disaster. This is a strong and legitimate request from the Lebanese people. It is a question of trust. The means are available and must be mobilised," he said in his opening speech.
