by arabnews.com — DUBAI: Just days after the enormous blast that shattered Beirut, Ali Hammoud found himself looking down on the rubble from an airplane window, leaving behind his family and hometown. Born and raised in Lebanon’s capital, the 30-year-old IT engineer finally decided to head for Dubai after the explosion destroyed his last hopes of ever seeing Beirut prosper. “It’s not easy at all, but I had to finally leave. I feel I’ve betrayed the city I love to death, but there is nothing left for me there except depression,” Hammoud said after arriving in the Gulf emirate. “Now I can start a professional career, live in peace and send money back to my family,” said Hammoud, who had spent a year looking in vain for work before the Aug. 4 disaster that left more than 170 people dead and compounded Lebanon’s financial crisis.

Like many of his compatriots longing for safety and stability, the young man has applied for a job in Dubai. He joins tens of thousands of Lebanese who helped build a glitzy city that reminds them of their parents’ tales of the glamor of old Beirut — but with glimmering skyscrapers instead of Ottoman-era and French colonial villas. Last week’s explosion of a long-neglected stock of ammonium nitrate at Beirut’s port ripped through the vibrant coastal city known for its rich history as well as legendary nightlife and cuisine. The fact that Lebanese officials had long tolerated a ticking time-bomb in the heart of the Mediterranean city has served as proof to many of the rot at the core of the state apparatus. “My aim is to overcome the guilt of leaving,” said Hammoud. “Dubai will be my new Beirut.”

by rferl.org — French President Emmanuel Macron held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss post-election violence in Belarus and the situation in Lebanon following a devastating blast in Beirut. Macron also spoke by phone with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rohani, urging Tehran to avoid interfering in Lebanon or escalating tensions. Iran wields influence in Lebanon through the militant Shia Hizballah group, whose political wing was a major bloc in the outgoing Lebanese government and has an alliance with President Michel Aoun, a Maronite Christian. Lebanon’s government under Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned this week following days of demonstrations in the wake of an explosion at the Beirut port on August 4 that devastated entire neighborhoods of the city and left 171 people dead. In his talks with Rohani, Macron emphasized the “necessity for all the powers concerned…to avoid any outside interference and to support the putting in place of a government which can manage the emergency,” the Elysee said.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Germany’s foreign minister said on Wednesday that Lebanon needed a government able to fight corruption and enact reforms as he toured Beirut port, scene of the devastating explosion that has kindled protests and led the government to resign. The Aug. 4 blast at a warehouse storing highly explosive material killed at least 172 people, injured some 6,000, left around 300,000 without habitable housing and wrecked swathes of the Mediterranean city, compounding a deep economic and financial crisis. “It is impossible that things go on as before,” Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said. “The international community is ready to invest but needs securities for these investments. It is important to have a government that fights the corruption. “Many in Europe have a lot of interest for this country. They want to know that there are economic reforms and good governance,” Maas added.

The resignation of Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s government has deepened uncertainty. His cabinet’s talks with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout had already stalled over internal differences about the scale of financial losses. Forming a new government could be daunting amid factional rifts and growing public discontent with a ruling class that many Lebanese brand as responsible for the country’s woes. The foreign ministers of Russia and Saudi Arabia agreed on Wednesday on the importance of creating “beneficial external conditions” for the formation of a new Lebanese government, the Russian foreign ministry said. Humanitarian aid has poured in but foreign countries have made clear they will not provide funds to help pull Lebanon from economic collapse without action on long-demanded reforms to tackle systemic graft, waste, mismanagement and negligence.

Lebanese security officials warned the prime minister and president of catastrophic danger only two weeks before the explosion which left much of the capital in ruins, according to documents seen by Reuters and senior security sources.

by arabnews.com — DUBAI: Lebanese actress Nadine Nassib Njeim revealed this week, she has decided to leave her home country after a massive explosion ripped through the city of Beirut, killing over 135 people and injuring thousands. Last week, the star, who lives close to the port area where the explosion happened, underwent six hours of surgery. “In this moment, from the hospital, I made a decision: I will leave the country and live in safety in another country that respects its people,” she wrote to her one million twitter followers. “It is better than staying and dying in a country ruled by bullies.” The former Miss Lebanon then addressed the rulers in her tweet saying: “When you are buried underground, we will come back to our country. Otherwise, there is no need to speak any further, and thank you.” After the tragic incident, the star shared a video – shot by someone else – of her damaged apartment on Instagram. “Half my face and my body were covered in blood,” said Njeim. “I thank God first, who saved my life.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Angry and grieving protesters on Tuesday read aloud the names of at least 171 people killed in last week’s explosion at Beirut port and called for the removal of Lebanon’s president and other officials they blame for the tragedy. Gathered near “ground zero”, some carried pictures of the victims as a large screen replayed footage of the mushroom cloud that rose over the city on Aug. 4 after highly-explosive material stored for years detonated, injuring some 6,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. “HE KNEW” was written across an image of President Michel Aoun on a poster at the protest venue. Underneath, it read: “A government goes, a government comes; we will continue until the president and the parliament speaker are removed.” Container lines resume calls to Beirut as terminal restarts operations Reuters reported that the president and prime minister were warned in July about the warehoused ammonium nitrate, according to documents and senior security sources.

Aoun, who has pledged a swift and transparent investigation, tweeted on Tuesday: “My promise to all the pained Lebanese is that I will not rest until all the facts are known.” Residents of Beirut were still picking up the pieces as search operations continued for 30 to 40 people still missing and security forces fired tear gas at stone-throwing protesters in the fourth such day of unrest. “Our house is destroyed and we are alone,” said Khalil Haddad. “We are trying to fix it the best we can at the moment. Let’s see, hopefully there will be aid and, the most important thing: hopefully the truth will be revealed.” Lebanese have not been placated by Monday’s resignation of Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s government and are demanding the wholesale removal of what they see as a corrupt ruling class they brand as responsible for the country’s woes. “We will not forget until nooses are erected (for the leaders),” one man said at Tuesday’s demonstration after he read out some of the victims’ names shown on the screen.

by foxnews.com — Cortney Moore — An unidentified couple ventured out to a bridge near the Beirut explosion site in Lebanon and snapped modelesque photos of themselves mere yards from where 220 people were killed and thousands were injured on Tuesday. Photos of the pair were captured by Nabil Mounzer of the European Pressphoto Agency […]

by Hussein Dakroub — The Daily Star — BEIRUT: Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned Monday under mounting public pressure in the wake of a devastating explosion that rocked Beirut last week, in a move effectively clearing the way for a national unity government backed by France, the US, and Arab countries, an official source said. “The resignation of Diab’s Cabinet is bound to smooth the path for a political settlement to resolve Lebanon’s multiple political, economic and financial crises, and cope with the aftermath of the Beirut blast,” the official source told The Daily Star. “Sponsored by France and backed by the United States and Arab countries, this settlement calls basically for the formation of a national unity government embracing all the main parties in the country,” the source said.

In a televised speech to the Lebanese announcing his government’s resignation, Diab lashed out at what he called the “system of corruption” that is controlling the country. “We want to open the door to national salvation, a salvation that the Lebanese will participate in achieving. Therefore, today I announce the resignation of this government,” Diab said. “May God protect Lebanon … ” Without identifying corrupt politicians largely blamed for the country’s worst economic and financial crisis in decades, Diab said: “I previously said that the system of corruption is deeply rooted in all the functions of the state; nevertheless I discovered that the system of corruption is bigger than the state, and that the latter is constrained by this system and cannot confront it or get rid of it.” “We are still under the shock of the tragedy that struck Lebanon. This disaster which has hit the Lebanese at the core occurred as a result of chronic corruption in politics, administration and the state,” he added.

Diab said one of the many examples of corruption exploded in Beirut Port, and the calamity befell Lebanon. “But corruption cases are widespread in the country’s political and administrative landscape; other calamities hiding in many minds and warehouses, and which pose a great threat, are protected by the class that controls the fate of the country, threatens the lives of people, falsifies facts, survives on seditions and trades in people’s blood during periods of relinquishment which have become a pattern that repeat itself according to interests, impulses, calculations and fluctuating dependencies,” he said. Calling the Beirut blast an “earthquake” that struck the country, with all its humanitarian, social, economic and national repercussions, Diab said: “Today we are appealing to the people, to their demand to hold accountable those responsible for this disaster that has been concealed for seven years, to their desire for real change, for a shift from the state of corruption, waste, brokerage and thefts, to a state based on the rule of law, justice, and transparency, a state that respects its citizens.”

by Billboard Staff  — The British singer, who has Lebanese roots, shared in the country’s grief over the deadly Beirut blast. British glam-pop star Mika (real name Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr.), who was born in Beirut and whose mother is of Lebanese descent, wrote a letter to the Lebanese people to share in their grief and anger over the incident. Billboard was sent an English-language transcript:

My dear Lebanon, My dear Beirut,

It’s still early in the morning on the other side of the Mediterranean and I feel so close and yet so far away from you. So close to you, as you lie devastated by the apocalypse, I can’t stop staring, transfixed, at the battered expressions of my brothers and sisters. In their eyes, I sense their fright, their tears. I shudder as I see a wounded person carried out through the rear window of an old car, a young girl covered in blood in her father’s arms, shell-shocked inhabitants running through streets littered with rubble, broken glass and shattered buildings… So far away from you, haunted by the desolation, I hear in my head the deafening noise of the two explosions that haunted the residents of Beirut. The screams of the grieving families and stunned victims merge in the middle of the night with the screeching sirens of ambulances. I’ve also been told of the silence in the early hours of this morning, of the smell of the smoking ruins.

  FORT BREGANCON, France (Reuters) – An emergency donor conference on Sunday for blast-stricken Lebanon raised pledges worth nearly 253 million euros ($298 million) for immediate humanitarian relief, the French presidency said. Those commitments would not be conditional on political or institutional reform, President Emmanuel Macron’s office said. There were also pledges made for longer-term […]