Opinion

Another pounce on a crumbling Lebanon

photo_camera Lebanon

Immediately after the horrific explosion that reduced the port of Beirut and its annexed facilities to rubble, Israel was quick to deny any intervention on its part in this new tragedy that further accentuates the desolation of a devastated Lebanon. This was not just any denial, since the country, as the platform that sums up all the wars that have taken place and are still taking place in the Middle East, is the site of all kinds of conspiracies and agitation. 

Certainly, it would have been far more morbid than the desolate ruins around the port of the formerly called "the Switzerland of the Middle East" would have been caused by missiles or other devices of unequivocal warlike intent. Things seem much simpler in their immense tragedy, however: it was the explosion of a warehouse full of explosive materials, confiscated over the last six years by the country's security forces. This has been acknowledged by General Abas Ibrahim, who was responsible for ensuring that this did not happen. 

As in any country that is used to living in a permanent climate of war, Lebanon would have neglected many of the rules and protocols governing the handling of these goods. For example, it had found no better place to store the 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which had been confiscated from a flag of convenience ship over a year ago, than in that same gigantic warehouse. This potentially highly explosive fertilizer is highly destructive as soon as it comes into contact with heat sources. 

Ruin and collapse

Lebanon is so broke that it can barely afford to spend money to strengthen security measures within the usual parameters. Its four million inhabitants, a mosaic of beliefs, religions and diverse identities, have been overwhelmed by the flood of another two million refugees from the war in Syria. The Hezbollah party-militia, Iran's armed wing, conditions the entire life of the country, watched over, of course, by an Israel that does not trust its northern border as it belongs to a country in tatters. It remains to be verified that a large part of the explosives stored in the port had been requisitioned from Hezbollah during the last six years, but there are multiple indications that this is the case. 

Until the final count of victims is established, at least a hundred dead and some 4,000 wounded were already being counted in the early hours of this Wednesday morning, a true balance of war, to which must be added the total or partial destruction of dozens of buildings, the very infrastructure of the port and the access roads. The violence of the deflagrations was so intense that it could be heard in Cyprus, 240 kilometres from the Lebanese coast, while the fungus caused by the explosions in the warehouse and the adjacent wheat silos was visible from 30 kilometres away. 

Laziness, misery and the conjunction of the stars, everything has converged in this tragedy, which is taking place just a few hours before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Hague passes judgement on the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. That happened in 2005 and, in addition to the fact that the car bomb left a crater 60 metres in diameter and ten metres deep, it dashed hopes that the country could be reborn from its ashes in the hands of a man in whom Saudi Arabia had placed all its complacency and promised enormous economic aid. Incidentally, the Hariri family home is near the port of Beirut. It seems that it is still intact, even if Lebanon, with this new tragedy, accelerates its collapse.