Geagea: The entire Lebanese state is responsible for Beirut blast

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FILE PHOTO: Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Saturday the entire Lebanese state is responsible for the port explosion, after the indictment of caretaker PM Hassan Diab and 3 former ministers stirred controversy.

“Responsibility lies on the Lebanese state as a whole because several of the state’s administrations, agencies and institutions either had a direct or indirect relation with that file in the last seven years. We can imagine how many have a relationship with that prolonged crime,” said Geagea.

The LF was one of the parties “demanding international investigation into the devastating blast, but unfortunately the first to reject that demand was Hezbollah,” Geagea said, noting that other parties joined Hezbollah’s rejection later, a possible reference Hezbollah’s ally president Michel Aoun who called the idea of International investigation a waste of time and promised a Lebanese investigation will find the culprits responsible for the blast in less than a week and try them

Beirut Port area after the explosion of 2750 tons of Ammonium Nitrate. 200 killed , some still missing , 6500 Injured They were stored there for nearly 7 years. The shelf life of the product is supposed to be 6 months according to experts and the older the product the more explosive it becomes. There were unconfirmed reports that Hezbollah shipped out several tons of the product to UK, Germany , Cyprus , Syria and several areas of Lebanon . Experts believe that if the whole 2750 tons exploded the whole of Beirut would have been leveled

“The state was not responsive to our demands,” added the LF chief during a meeting with a Beirut cadre delegation.

He urged the President and government to make a request to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, through one of the permanent members of the Security Council, to form a fact-finding committee on this crime.

Top Lebanese politicians and Hezbolah rallied on Friday against charges of negligence leveled against the caretaker prime minister and three former ministers over the massive explosion in Beirut’s port, underscoring the enormous difficulties facing the investigation.

“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. 

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