BEIRUT (AP) Zeina Karam — Top Lebanese politicians and the militant Hezbollah group rallied on Friday against charges of negligence levelled against the caretaker prime minister and three former ministers over the massive explosion in Beirut’s port, underscoring the enormous difficulties facing the investigation. Hezbollah called on investigating judge Fadi Sawwan to reconsider the charges, calling them “political targeting” and saying they lacked legal and constitutional basis. Similar criticism was voiced by Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, who visited the accused caretaker Premier Hassan Diab — a political foe — in a gesture of solidarity. Lebanon’s grand mufti, the top cleric for Sunni Muslims, said the charges are an attack on “the office of the prime minister” and were a violation of the constitution. The prime minister in Lebanon must be a Sunni Muslim, according to the country’s sectarian-based power-sharing system.

The four are the most senior officials to be charged in the investigation and are set to be questioned as defendants next week by Judge Sawwan. It was not clear whether the criticism could have an impact on the investigation — or the charges— but the united front was seen by many as an attempt to block a precedent that might lead to accountability on a high level. A culture of impunity has prevailed in Lebanon for decades, including among the entrenched political elites. It has also fostered widespread corruption that has helped plunge Lebanon into the worst economic and financial crisis in its history. “What is happening now can be summed up in four words: Gangs defending each other,” tweeted Riad Kobaissi, an investigative journalist who has followed corruption at Beirut port. In a stunning move, Judge Sawwan filed the charges against Diab and three former ministers on Thursday, accusing them of negligence that led to the death of hundreds of people in the catastrophic explosion in August. At this point, however, it is far too early to say if any of the four will actually face trial. Diab, who is supported by Hezbollah and its political allies, resigned in the wake of the Aug. 4 blast but remains in his post in a caretaker capacity, as Lebanese officials have failed to agree on a new Cabinet.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands — A United Nations-backed tribunal sentenced a member of the Hezbollah militant group to life in prison …

by NAJIA HOUSSARI -- arabnews -- BEIRUT: Hopes that Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s new government would be confirmed quickly were dashed on Thursday when President Michel Aoun presented his own counter-proposal to Hariri’s suggested Cabinet lineup of 18 ministers. Hariri stressed that he had selected “specialists with no partisan affiliations.” Mustafa Alloush, the vice president of Hariri’s Future Movement party, said: “Hariri has carried out his constitutional duties, and the ball is now in the court of the president and his team, especially his brother-in-law, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, MP Gibran Bassil.” However, a statement issued by the Presidency of the Republic after Aoun’s meeting with Hariri said that Aoun “handed Hariri in return an integrated government proposal which includes a distribution of portfolios based on clear principles.” This indicates, according to commentators, that Lebanon’s “political dispute remains unchanged.”

Alloush said: “Hariri submitted an integrated government lineup of independent, nonpartisan ministers. It represents most of the sectarian components and respects the unity of standards as the political forces demanded, but it seems that President Aoun’s team, and especially Bassil, insist on being the obstructing third of the government while keeping specific ministries, such as the Ministry of Energy, and this is what Hariri did not and will not accept.” He added: “Hariri suggested Shiite ministers that would provoke neither Hezbollah nor the Amal movement.” Sources close to Aoun said that the president was “surprised that Hariri named all the ministers, including Christians, without consulting him.”

ZEINA KARAM -- BEIRUT (AP) — The Lebanese prosecutor probing last summer’s port explosion in Beirut filed charges on Thursday against the caretaker prime minister and three former ministers, accusing them of negligence that led to the death of hundreds of people, Lebanon’s official news agency said. The four are the most senior individuals to be indicted so far in the investigation, which is being conducted in secrecy. And though it is too early to predict whether any of the four would end up on trial, the development was significant in Lebanon, where a culture of impunity has prevailed for decades, including among the entrenched political elites. Judge Fadi Sawwan, the prosecutor responsible for the investigation, filed the charges against Hassan Diab and former Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, as well as Ghazi Zeiter and Youssef Fenianos, both former ministers of public works. All four were charged with carelessness and negligence leading to death over the Aug. 4 explosion at Beirut's port, which killed more than 200 people and injured thousands.

The explosion was caused by the ignition of a large stockpile of explosive material that had been stored at the port for six years, with the knowledge of top security officials and politicians who did nothing about it. Anger has been building up over the slow investigation, lack of answers and the fact that no senior officials have been indicted. About 30 other security officials and port and customs officials have been detained in the probe so far. Diab is a former professor at the American University of Beirut who became prime minister late last year. Although he served as minister of education from 2011-14, he is considered to be an outsider to the political ruling class that has run Lebanon since the end of the 1975-90 civil war. Since the shipment of ammonium nitrates arrived in Lebanon in late 2013, four prime ministers have been in office. It was not clear why Sawwan has singled out Diab, who was prime minister for less than a year among the ex-premiers who have held the post while the nitrates were improperly stored at a port warehouse, a ticking bomb.