by ZAID M. BELBAGI — arabnews — For Lebanon — a country facing a perfect storm of hyperinflation, food shortages and an acute political crisis — the notion that circumstances could worsen seemed impossible to countenance. However, the Aug. 4 explosion of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate in Beirut port proved that things could indeed get worse. Who was responsible for the storage of such quantities of the explosive will remain the subject of speculation, but it must not be allowed to distract from the very real challenges Lebanon faces. A country urgently in need of a bailout, it must look to its talented citizens, not its disconnected elites, for a way out. If anything, the explosion served to underscore the negligence of a nomenklatura that has always put its own financial interests ahead of those of the Lebanese people. As one of the world’s most indebted nations, which now finds itself without a government, the uphill struggle could not be steeper. Whereas disasters elsewhere in the world are met with a period of investigation, in Lebanon crises provide an excuse for those in power to entrench themselves further.

Lebanon’s political elite, unabated by popular anger, is jockeying to form another sham government of self-interest and avoid any sort of investigation. Perhaps more worryingly, an important audit of the country’s central bank is being all but averted. The institution that was complicit in the laundering of billions of dollars stands at the center both of what has plagued Lebanon and any attempt to find a resolution. The lackluster President Michel Aoun has once more deemed that his own political future, as a man of 85, supersedes that of his nation. Ignoring calls to resign, he and MPs must now agree on a new government — though, given the fate of Lebanon’s outgoing prime minister of just a few months, such efforts seem unlikely to succeed.

(MENAFN – Trend News Agency) Head of Lebanese Order of Physicians Charaf Abou Charaf Friday urged donor countries to accelerate their financial support for hospitals destroyed in the explosions in early August to prevent doctors’ leave, Trend reports citing Xinhua. Abou Charaf’s remarks came during his visit to hospitals including Geitawi hospital and Saint George […]

by NAJIA HOUSSARI — arabnews — BEIRUT: Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Thursday that he plans to include “competent figures representing the voice of the street” in the new government. Ten days after Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s government resigned in the wake of the Beirut port blast, Aoun is yet to set a date for parliamentary consultations to name a leader for the next government. In a tweet on Thursday, he added that it is not clear if talks will take place soon. Diab’s government stepped down amid widespread public anger following the port explosion that devastated Beirut, killing 180 people and causing widespread damage. Opponents of Diab’s leadership claim it was a “shadow government” dominated by Hezbollah that failed to carry out reforms demanded by the international community.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is fighting to restore Saad Hariri as prime minister. Hariri’s government of national unity resigned in October, 2019, after violent protests broke out amid claims of growing government corruption. Protesters called for a transitional government to implement reforms demanded by the global community to help Lebanon overcome its economic crisis. Aoun and Berri held a meeting two days ago in which the parliament speaker suggested Hariri return to the leadership. MPs have reported Berri saying that he considers Hariri “the perfect man for the stage.” Berri also claims that he has Hezbollah’s backing for Hariri. Sources say he is insisting on a political government, not a technocratic one, and wants Hariri to provide it with an acceptable cover in light of the political and economic crises facing Lebanon.

BAABDA, Lebanon (CNS) — By Doreen Abi Raad — — U.S. Daughter of Charity Sister Ann Sauvé, a member of the administrative staff at the order’s Sacred Heart Hospital in this Beirut suburb, will not easily forget Aug. 4 and the massive explosion in the port of Beirut. “I can still recall a mass of people sitting or lying on stretchers — sometimes even on the floor — waiting patiently for their turn, not really asking for anything, without complaints, and perhaps not even knowing if they still had a home, or, in some cases, if they had lost a family member,” Sister Ann told Catholic News Service. “We cared for them as efficiently as possible, but it took time and many had to wait for their turn. When they were able to leave after receiving the necessary care, it was always with a quiet and sincere ‘thank you.’ The next day, visiting them in their hospital room, it was again their thanks that we heard, despite their shock and their suffering. … an experience I will never forget,” said Sister Ann, who has served in the Middle East since 1976, most of the time in Lebanon, but also in Egypt and Jerusalem.

The hospital received about 200 people in its emergency room that night. The explosion killed more than 170 people and wounded more than 6,000. “At the hospital, medical corps, administration, maintenance, pharmacy, technicians worked together calmly and as peacefully as possible, each giving their best. We were so touched by the messages that came in from nearly all over the world: people sharing their grief with us and assuring us of their prayers,” Sister Ann said. One of the victims of the blast was 76-year-old Daughter of Charity Sister Sophie Khosrovian, who was from Iran. “Toward the beginning of the evening, someone told me that Sister Sophie was wounded. The emergency room at that time was very crowded, and I could not find her. Then someone informed me that her condition was very critical, she had been intubated and sent immediately to the Intensive Care Unit. But Sister Sophie did not respond to resuscitative efforts and died of her injuries about three hours after her admission,” Sister Ann said.

by thehill.com — Laura Kelly — The U.S. will continue to provide humanitarian support for the Lebanese people affected by a deadly and devastating explosion at the port of Beirut in early August, a top State Department official said Wednesday, but will not underwrite the current government until real reforms take place. David Hale, the under secretary for political affairs, spoke candidly about Lebanese government corruption and incompetence in a briefing with reporters following a recent trip to the region. He said while the U.S. remains committed to addressing the immediate humanitarian crisis — the U.S. has so far provided $18 million in emergency assistance — it will not provide a bailout for the Lebanese government.

“We will not be providing that kind of long-term assistance until we see a government that’s actually capable of reform and change,” Hale said. He further criticized the government, saying that Lebanon’s leaders “have been ignoring their responsibility to meet the needs of the people and have resisted the kind of deep, fundamental reforms that are needed.” He added that “we can’t fix that from the outside. Lebanese leaders have to demonstrate the political will and commitment to that and that was my main message.” Lebanon has been viewed as a country on the brink of collapse even before the Aug. 4 blast amid an economic crisis worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The source of the blast is believed to be from a fire at the city’s port that spread to nearly 3,000 tons of abandoned and improperly stored, highly-explosive ammonium nitrate. The explosion killed nearly 200 people, injured thousands and left hundreds of thousands of people with destroyed homes.

by foreignpolicy.com — BY ANCHAL VOHRA — There is a saying in Lebanon that the country functions better without a government than with one. That has never been truer than now. Minutes after the explosion ripped through Beirut on Aug. 4, Red Cross medics appeared on the street with first aid kits, and volunteers managed traffic. Young men and women carrying water bottles went door to door asking if anyone needed help. Lebanon’s conflict-ridden past, riddled with wars and invasions, economic collapse, and rampant corruption, has steadily trained citizens to spring into action when confronted with an emergency. Within a week of the explosion that wreaked havoc in the capital, they cleaned the city’s roads, which had been made impassable with broken glass and debris.

Of course, in any other country, the army and disaster management officials would have also rushed to the spot of the explosion; politicians would have lined up to offer condolences and support. But here the state was conspicuously absent. Instead, President Michel Aoun imposed a state of emergency and granted the army expansive powers to curb freedom of movement, press, and assembly to boot out angry protesters from the streets. The Lebanese people have been both first responders and victims of their government’s response. Mounds of shattered glass, wood, and entangled metal, mixed with household items such as half-torn books, contorted utensils, and photographs, now fill the sidewalks of the neighborhoods that were, before the blast, the heart of the city. The volunteers who wielded brooms and shovels through the Christian-dominated neighborhoods of Gemmayze and Mar Mikhael hailed from across the country’s religious sects. Two groups of scouts, one from the Sunni-dominated northern city of Tripoli wearing maroon vests, and one from the Shiite south in green, were busy sweeping damaged houses. (The state was nowhere in sight: Police officers merely guarded the entry to the road and roped off a building that was in danger of collapse.)

by bbc.com — A UN-backed court has found a member of the militant group Hezbollah guilty of involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri. Judges at the Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon said Salim Ayyash had a central role in the bomb attack in Beirut in 2005 that killed Hariri. They acquitted three other defendants, who like Ayyash were tried in absentia. Hezbollah denied any involvement, and the judges said no evidence implicated the Shia militant group’s leaders. Hariri’s son Saad, who is himself a former prime minister, told reporters outside the court: “I think today everybody’s expectation was much higher than what came out, but I believe the tribunal came out with a verdict that is satisfying and we accept it.” Now, he said, it was time for Hezbollah to “make sacrifices”. “It is clear that the network responsible is from its ranks,” he added. “We will not rest until the punishment is carried out.”

The verdict comes at a time of crisis in Lebanon, with the country still reeling from a devastating explosion at Beirut’s port two weeks ago that killed at least 180 people. The blast led to the resignation of the government, already embattled by protests over an economic collapse that has seen many people lose their savings and jobs. The tribunal’s verdicts will disappoint supporters of Rafik Hariri as well the families of the 21 others who were killed and the 226 who were wounded, many grievously. The man convicted in his absence, Salim Ayyash, was a well-connected, mid-level operative in Hezbollah, the most powerful military and political group in Lebanon. It is classified by the UK, the US and others as a terrorist organisation.

By Vandana Rambaran | Fox News — Lebanese President Michel Aoun says it’s “impossible” that explosive material in the Beirut port that caught fire — resulting in a deadly explosion earlier this month — was caused by Hezbollah arms. Aoun, who has been accused of being a puppet of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia group, made […]

by english.aawsat.com — Warnings by Western officials over the need for reforms in Lebanon had often been met with disappointing responses by the country’s political leaders, a senior United Nations official said on Monday following this month’s Beirut port explosion. US and French officials visiting the city after the Aug. 4 blast that killed 178 people said they had made clear they would not extend a financial lifeline to the country if its leaders did not tackle corruption and mismanagement. The officials were representing the International Support Group (ISG) for Lebanon which includes the United Nations, the United States, France and Britain. “With grave concerns ISG Ambassadors today discussed the deepening overall crisis in Lebanon,” tweeted Jan Kubis, UN special coordinator for Lebanon.

He said tough warnings had been delivered to the authorities and political leaders and their responses had often been rather disappointing. “Expectations of the international community are well known – without urgent reforms that require broad political support Lebanon cannot count on any bailout,” he tweeted. The call echoes others from Western powers, including French President Emmanuel Macron and US Undersecretary for Political Affairs David Hale, who both visited Beirut. Hale said Lebanon needed “economic and fiscal reforms, an end to dysfunctional governance and to empty promises”. The detonation of highly-explosive material stored unsafely for years at the port injured 6,000, left 300,000 homeless and destroyed whole neighborhoods. The now-caretaker cabinet on Monday extended a state of emergency in the capital until Sept. 18.

BEIRUT (AP) — The head of Lebanon’s customs authority was formally arrested on Monday after being questioned over the massive explosion in Beirut earlier this month, the state-run National News Agency reported. The investigation is focused on why nearly 3,000 tons of explosive ammonium nitrate was being stored at the city’s port. The ignition of the stockpile caused an explosion that tore through the capital, killing at least 180 people and wounding 6,000. Thirty people are still missing after the Aug. 4 blast, which caused an estimated $10 billion to $15 billion in damage. More than 70,000 workers are believed to be unemployed due to the explosions, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday, on top of 220,000 people estimated to have lost their jobs as a result of the ?nancial crisis that began last October last year and those left jobless by the COVID-19 pandemic. Dujarric said some 40,000 buildings were damaged, with 3,000 residential structures severely damaged, and at least 2,000 doctors were either injured or had their clinics destroyed.

Documents that surfaced after the blast, the single most destructive in Lebanon’s history, showed that officials have known for years that 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate were stored in a warehouse at the port and knew about the dangers. Judge Fadi Sawwan questioned customs chief Badri Daher, who was detained days after the blast, for 4 1/2 hours in the presence of his two lawyers before issuing the arrest warrant, the agency said. Daher will remain in custody as the investigation continues. NNA said that after questioning Daher, Sawwan headed to the scene of the blast to survey the damage and will later return to question Hassan Koraytem, who was the top port official until the day of the blast.