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
“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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