Beirut port blast: Gunfire erupts at protest against judge leading probe

At least six people have been killed and 32 others injured by gunfire in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

The shooting began during a protest by the Shia Muslim groups Hezbollah and Amal against the judge investigating last year's blast at the city's port.

They said Christian snipers fired at the crowd to drag Lebanon into strife.

Huge tension surrounds the probe into the port explosion. Hezbollah and its allies claim the judge is biased, but the victims' families support his work.

No-one has yet been held accountable for the August 2020 disaster, in which 219 people were killed and swathes of the city were devastated.

'The day our city exploded'
The ship of ‘lost lives and dreams’
The inferno and the mystery ship

What began as a protest outside the Palace of Justice - the main court building - by hundreds of people arguing the investigation had become politicised and demanding the removal of Judge Tarek Bitar escalated remarkably quickly, reports the BBC's Anna Foster in Beirut.

Heavy gunfire erupted in the streets as the crowd passed through a roundabout in the central Tayouneh-Badaro area.

Residents fled as Shia and Christian militia fighters exchanged fire in the streets

Local residents had to flee their homes and schoolchildren ducked for cover under their desks as men armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers - believed to have been members of Shia and Christian militias - exchanged fire in the streets.

The clashes continued for several hours before calm was restored.

Hospital and military sources said some of those killed were shot in the head. They included a woman who was hit by a stray bullet while inside her home.

Hezbollah and Amal accused a staunch opponent, the Christian Lebanese Forces party, of being behind the attack on the protesters.

 

Lebanese army soldiers and ambulances rushed to the scene after the gunfire erupted

The two Shia organisations said demonstrators were "subject to an armed attack by groups from the Lebanese Forces party that deployed in neighbouring streets and on rooftops, and engaged in direct sniping activity and intentional killing".

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea condemned the violence and appealed for calm.

"The main cause of these developments lies in the presence of uncontrolled and widespread weapons that threaten the citizens at any time and in any place," he tweeted.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on everyone to "calm down and not be drawn into sedition for any reason whatsoever".

The army said it had deployed troops to search for the assailants, and warned that they would "shoot at any gunman on the roads".

Hezbollah and Amal supporters had gathered earlier to demand the removal of Judge Tarek Bitar

Earlier on Thursday, a court dismissed a legal complaint brought by two former government ministers and Amal MPs - Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zaiter - whom Judge Bitar has sought to question on suspicion of negligence in connection with the port explosion.

The two men, who deny any wrongdoing, accused the judge of bias.

Families of the victims had condemned the complaint, which caused the probe to be suspended for the second time in three weeks.

They have accused the country's political leadership of trying to shield itself from scrutiny.

"Keep your hands off the judiciary," they warned the cabinet on Wednesday after ministers allied to Hezbollah demanded that Judge Bitar be replaced.

The port blast happened after a fire detonated 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a combustible chemical widely used as agricultural fertiliser, that had been stored unsafely in a port warehouse for almost six years.

Senior officials were aware of the material's existence and the danger it posed but failed to secure, remove or destroy it.

Watch: People run for cover as gunfire sounds in Beirut

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M IS LEGAL

As Lebanese got poorer, politicians stowed wealth abroad
By BASSEM MROUE

1 of 8

Bank customers hold up defaced posters of Riad Salameh, the governor of Lebanon's Central Bank, right, and Makram Sadir, secretary general of the Association of Banks in Lebanon, with Arabic that reads: "Stole my future," during a protest in front of the Central Bank in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021. Dozens of Lebanese gathered outside a bank in Beirut's downtown demanding that they be allowed to withdraw their deposits that have been blocked amid Lebanon's severe financial and economic crisis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)


BEIRUT (AP) — A trove of leaked documents confirmed that for years, Lebanon’s politicians and bankers have stowed wealth in offshore tax havens and used it to buy expensive properties — a galling revelation for masses of newly impoverished Lebanese, caught in one of the world’s worst economic meltdowns in decades.

Some of the newly outed holders of offshore accounts belong to the same ruling elite that is being blamed for the collapse and for derailing the lives of ordinary Lebanese who have lost access to savings and now struggle to get fuel, electricity and medicine.

Bold-faced names in the leaked documents include the longtime central bank governor, a pivotal figure in the failed policies that helped trigger the financial crisis, as well as Prime Minister Najib Mikati and his predecessor.

The documents, named the “Pandora Papers,” were examined by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, with the first findings released on Sunday. The ICIJ report exposes the offshore secrets of wealthy elites from more than 200 countries and territories.

It was based on a review of nearly 11.9 million records obtained from 14 firms that provide services in setting up offshore firms and shell companies. Clients of such firms are often trying to hide their wealth and financial activities.

Setting up an offshore company is not illegal, but reinforces the perception that the wealthy and powerful play by different rules — a particularly upsetting notion for many Lebanese.

The papers show how members of the political class were sending wealth abroad for years, even as they urged people to deposit money in Lebanon’s banks, assuring them that it was safe, said Alia Ibrahim, a Lebanese journalist.

“We are not talking about regular citizens,” said Ibrahim, a co-founder of Daraj, a Beirut-based independent digital media platform, and one of scores of journalists across the world who worked with ICIJ on the investigation into the documents.

“These are politicians who served in public office for years, and they are partly responsible for the current crisis Lebanon is going through,” she said.

Lebanon is in the midst of what the World Bank says is one of the world’s worst economic meltdowns in the past 150 years. More than 70% of the population has been thrown into poverty, their savings nearly wiped out in the crisis that began in late 2019 and was in part caused by decades of corruption and mismanagement by the political class.

Hundreds of thousands of people staged nationwide protests against corruption starting in late 2019. Yet two years later the same politicians still run the country in the same way, protected by the sectarian-based system.

One of the protesters, Samir Skaff, said that the Lebanese are not surprised to be told that the political class “is made up of a bunch of thieves.”

“We have been saying that for years,” he said.

Customers hold a banner with Arabic that reads: "Pandora (Papers) exposed you," during a protest in front of the Central Bank in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021. Dozens of Lebanese gathered outside a bank in Beirut's downtown demanding that they be allowed to withdraw their deposits that have been blocked amid Lebanon's severe financial and economic crisis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)



Bank customers use stones to bang on a metal wall of a bank, during a protest in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021. Dozens of Lebanese gathered outside a bank in Beirut's downtown demanding that they be allowed to withdraw their deposits that have been blocked amid Lebanon's severe financial and economic crisis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Bank customers bang on the metal walls of a bank, during a protest in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021. Dozens of Lebanese gathered outside a bank in Beirut's downtown demanding that they be allowed to withdraw their deposits that have been blocked amid Lebanon's severe financial and economic crisis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A customer holds a placard with Arabic that reads: "What was taken by force can only be regained by force," during a protest in front of the Central Bank, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021. Dozens of Lebanese gathered outside a bank in Beirut's downtown demanding that they be allowed to withdraw their deposits that have been blocked amid Lebanon's severe financial and economic crisis. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Offshore companies, though not illegal, can be used to elude taxes or hide illicitly gained money. The leaks only add further confirmation to what Lebanese have long said about their ruling class — though repeated reports of graft or illicit activity in the past have failed to bring change.

One of the 14 firms listed by ICIJ as providing offshore services is Trident Trust, with 346 Lebanese clients making up the largest group, more than double the second-place country, Britain.

One focus of the revelations is Riad Salameh, who has been Lebanon’s central bank governor for nearly 30 years.

Daraj reported that the documents showed Salameh founded a company called AMANIOR, based in the British Virgin Islands, in 2007. He is listed as its full owner and sole director, which Daraj said appeared to violate Lebanese laws forbidding the central bank governor from activity in any enterprise.

Salameh’s office told The Associated Press that the central bank governor has no comment on the documents. ICIJ quoted him as saying that he declares his assets and has complied with reporting obligations under Lebanese law.

Salameh, 70, is being investigated in Switzerland and France for potential money laundering and embezzlement. Local media reported over the past months that Salameh and his brother as well as one of his aides have been involved in illegal businesses, including money transfers abroad despite the capital controls imposed at home. Salameh had denied making such transfers.

Other documents showed that Marwan Kheireddine, chairman of Lebanon’s Al-Mawarid Bank, was involved in setting up a flurry of offshore businesses in the months just before the economic crisis hit in late 2019. In November that year, his bank and others began imposing capital controls that meant Lebanese could pull very little money out of their accounts even as the currency crashed, wrecking their savings’ value.

The Pandora Papers reveal that in 2019, Kheireddine received control of an offshore firm in the British Virgin Islands, which he then used to buy a $2 million yacht.

In January 2019, he and his brother set up four firms in Britain on the same day, all based at the same London address, and all registered as “small companies,” which Daraj said meant they are exempt from auditing. In 2020, Kheireddine bought a $9.9 million New York penthouse sold by American actress Jennifer Lawrence, Lebanese media reported at the time.

Kheireddine is a former Cabinet minister and a senior member of the Lebanese Democratic Party. He did not respond to calls and a text message by the AP.

Prime Minister Mikati, a businessman who formed a new government last month, has owned a Panama-based offshore company since the 1990s. He used it in 2008 to buy property in Monaco worth more than $10 million, Daraj reported from the documents.

The leaked documents also show that his son Maher was a director of at least two British Virgin Islands-based companies, which his father’s Monaco-based company, M1 Group, used to obtain an office in central London.

Mikati released a statement saying his family fortune was amassed prior to his involvement in politics and was “compliant with global standards” and regularly scrutinized by auditors. Contacted by the AP, Mikati’s media adviser Fares Gemayel said he had no comment.

Speaking to Daraj, Maher Mikati said it was common for people in Lebanon to use offshore companies “due to the easy process of incorporation” and denied the purpose was to evade taxes.

Mikati’s predecessor as prime minister, Hassan Diab, was a co-owner of a shell company in the British Virgin Islands, Daraj reported.

Diab’s office said in a statement Monday that he helped establish the company in 2015, but it did not do any business and he resigned from the firm and gave up his shares in 2019.

“Is the setting up of a company against the law?” the statement said.

Diab’s government resigned days after a massive Aug. 4, 2020, blast in Beirut that killed and injured hundreds and destroyed the city’s port and nearby neighborhoods. Diab was charged with intentional killings and negligence in the case. He denies any wrongdoing but has refused to be questioned by the judge leading the investigation.

MORE ON THE 'PANDORA PAPERS'

– Leaked records open a 'Pandora' box of financial secrets

– Jordanian king's properties undercut father figure image

– Pandora Papers leak prompts calls for action in Asia

Hezbollah hammered with criticism amid Lebanon’s crises

By BASSEM MROUE

1 of 6

FILE - In this May 31, 2019 file photo, Hezbollah fighters march at a rally to mark Jerusalem day, in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, Lebanon. As Lebanon sinks deeper into poverty and collapse, many Lebanese are more openly criticizing the Iran-backed Hezbollah, blaming it for its role in the devastating, multiple crises plaguing the country. This includes a dramatic currency crash and severe shortages in medicines and fuel that has paralyzed the country. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)


LONG READ

BEIRUT (AP) — Driving back to base after firing rockets toward Israeli positions from a border area last month, a group of Hezbollah fighters was accosted by angry villagers who smashed their vehicles’ windshields and held them up briefly.

It was a rare incident of defiance that suggested many in Lebanon would not tolerate provocations by the powerful group that risk triggering a new war with Israel.

As Lebanon sinks deeper into poverty, many Lebanese are more openly criticizing Iran-backed Hezbollah. They blame the group — along with the ruling class — for the devastating, multiple crises plaguing the country, including a dramatic currency crash and severe shortages in medicine and fuel.

“Hezbollah is facing its most consequential challenge in maintaining control over the Lebanese system and what is called the ‘protective environment of the resistance’ against Israel,” said Joe Macaron, a Washington-based Middle East analyst.




Motorcycle drivers wait to get fuel at a gas station in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021. Lebanon is struggling amid a two-year economic and financial crisis that the World Bank has described as among the worst the world has witnessed since the mid-1850s. The crisis has left Lebanese suffering from severe shortages in fuel and basic goods like baby formula, medicine and spare parts. 

(AP Photo/ Hassan Ammar)


The incident along the border and other confrontations — including a deadly shooting at the funeral of a Hezbollah fighter and rare indirect criticism by the country’s top Christian religious leader — have left the group on the defensive.

The anger has spread in recent months, even in Hezbollah strongholds where many have protested electricity cuts and fuel shortages as well as the currency crash that has plunged more than half the country’s 6 million people into penury.

In its strongholds, predominantly inhabited by Shiite Muslims, it is not uncommon now for people to speak out against the group. They note that Hezbollah is paying salaries in U.S. dollars at a time when most Lebanese get paid in Lebanese currency, which has lost more than 90% of its value in nearly two years.

Protests and scuffles have broken out at gas stations around Lebanon and in some Hezbollah strongholds. In rare shows of defiance, groups of protesters have also closed key roads in those areas south of Beirut and in southern Lebanon.

In recent speeches, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has appeared angry, blaming the shortages on what he describes as an undeclared Western siege. The chaos in Lebanon, he said, is being instigated from a “black room” inside the U.S. Embassy.

Critics say that rather than push for reform, Hezbollah has stood by its political allies who resist change. They say the group is increasingly pulling Lebanon into Iran’s orbit by doing its bidding, and that U.S. sanctions against Iran and Hezbollah have made things harder.

Where Hezbollah was once considered an almost sacred, untouchable force fighting for a noble cause — the fight against the Israeli enemy — it is now seen by many simply as part of the corrupt political clique responsible for the country’s epic meltdown. Still, when it comes to fighting Israel, the group enjoys unwavering backing within its base of support.

FILE - This Aug. 5, 2020 file photo, shows the scene of an explosion that hit the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon. As Lebanon sinks deeper into poverty and collapse, many Lebanese are more openly criticizing the Iran-backed Hezbollah, blaming it for its role in the devastating, multiple crises plaguing the country. This includes a dramatic currency crash and severe shortages in medicines and fuel that has paralyzed the country. 

(AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)

Often criticized for operating as a state within a state, Hezbollah has tried to ease the effects of the crisis on its supporters in similar fashion.

While the government has been working for months to issue ration cards to poor families, Hezbollah has been well ahead. It has issued two such cards to poor families living in Hezbollah bastions, one called Sajjad after the name of a Shiite imam, and a second called Nour, or light, for its fighters and employees of its institutions who number about 80,000.

“We will serve you with our eyelashes,” is Hezbollah’s slogan to serve the extremely poor in its communities — a Lebanese term meaning they are ready to sacrifice anything to help others.

The tens of thousands carrying Sajjad cards not only can buy highly subsidized products from dozens of shops spread around Lebanon — mostly staples made in Lebanon, Iran and Syria — but can also get medical treatment and advice at 48 Hezbollah-run clinics around Lebanon.

Nasrallah is also organizing a sea corridor carrying oil from Iran to Lebanon to help alleviate the fuel shortages, with the first tanker believed to be on its way. The move has been praised by Hezbollah’s supporters and heavily criticized by its opponents, who say it risks bringing more sanctions on Lebanon.

In the border incident, villagers from the minority Druze sect intercepted Hezbollah fighters on their way back after firing rockets toward a disputed area held by Israel. The villagers briefly detained them and the mobile rocket launcher they used after accusing them of putting them at risk if Israel strikes back.

The fighters and the launcher were then handed over to Lebanese troops, who released them on the same day.

Later, Hezbollah angered many Christians after supporters launched a social media campaign against the head of Lebanon’s Maronite Catholic church, the country’s largest, accusing him of treason after he criticized the group for firing the rockets on Israeli positions.

The widely feared group has been hammered by accusations from its local opponents. They include silencing its opponents, facilitating smuggling of fuel and other subsidized items to neighboring Syria, and alienating oil-rich Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, leading them to halt financial assistance because of Hezbollah’s dominance of Lebanon.

The most serious charge has been a claim by opponents at home that the group brought in the hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate that exploded at Beirut’s port last year, killing at least 214 people, wounding thousands and destroying parts of the capital.

No direct connection to Hezbollah has emerged, but unsubstantiated theories that tie the group to the stockpile abound. One claim is that Hezbollah imported the chemicals on behalf of the Syrian government, which used them in barrel bombs against rebel-held areas during the neighboring country’s 10-year conflict.

“Hezbollah’s agencies are active at the port and this is known to security agencies and all Lebanese. Why is Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah above questioning?” asked Samy Gemayel, head of the right-wing Christian Kataeb Party recently.

Hezbollah has repeatedly denied any link to the ammonium nitrate. But Nasrallah further angered families of the victims and other Lebanese recently by criticizing the judge leading the investigation into the blast, suggesting he should be replaced. Nasrallah described Judge Tarek Bitar as “politicized” after he filed charges against some legislators and former Cabinet ministers allied with Hezbollah.

“There is an attempt to satanize Hezbollah and tarnish its image,” said Lebanese University political science professor Sadek Naboulsi. The professor, who has ties to the group, accused foreign powers including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and the U.S. of seeking to incite internal strife between Lebanon’s Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities with the aim of weakening Hezbollah. He added that Hezbollah had overcome such pressures in the past and emerged more powerful.

A serious test for Hezbollah came in early August when a funeral of a militant came under fire by suspected Sunni gunmen on the southern entrance of Beirut. Three Hezbollah supporters were killed and 16 were wounded in the shooting in the town of Khaldeh.

Hezbollah did not retaliate and instead called on Lebanese authorities to investigate the case.

“An increasing number of Lebanese are realizing that the concept of a Lebanese state cannot coexist with a powerful armed militia serving an outside power,” wrote Michael Young, editor of Diwan, the blog of the Carnegie Middle East Center.

Macaron said Hezbollah will not be the same after the crisis and will have to adapt to ensure political survival in the long term.

“What they can do at this point is to limit losses as much as possible,” he said.

 

In August 2020, at the time of the deadly Beirut port explosion, Lebanon was already facing deepening hardship due to the financial crisis caused by decades of state corruption and waste. In the wake of the deadly blast, the country was faced with dual political and economic crises that took a devastating turn over the past year. And now the country is rife with poverty, instability, hopelessness and many Lebanese have been forced to flee. Yet Sara El Yafi, Political Analyst & Activist, is more than determined than ever to stay put and "bridge the action to the truth. We need to get rid of this political mafia," insists Ms. El Yafi. Ms. El Yafi points out how some of Lebanon's top officials were well aware of, and tacitly accepted, the lethal risks posed by ammonium nitrate, as documented in a new Human Rights Watch report. Reuters reported last August that Prime Minister Hassan Diab and President Michel Aoun were both warned in July last year that the chemicals posed a security risk and could destroy the capital if they exploded. Despite the worsening situation, Ms. El Yafi remains hopeful in the Lebanese people, "which is everything we're seeing today (through mass protests and demands for justice). For the first time, a people have found their voice again. Because for a long time, we were held hostage by the Mafia and the militia. (But now) we are sounding our voices like never before and that's going to be translated (into) change."

Multiple Lebanese officials ‘criminally negligent’ for Beirut blast: Human Rights Watch
By Staff Reuters
Posted August 3, 2021 7:33 am

WATCH: Beirut explosion: Drone footage shows port and its surroundings 1 year after deadly blast.


A report released by Human Rights Watch on Tuesday concluded there was strong evidence to suggest some Lebanese officials knew about and tacitly accepted the lethal risks posed by ammonium nitrate stored at Beirut port before the fatal blast there on Aug. 4 last year.


HRW called for a U.N. investigation into the explosion, which was caused by the chemicals stored unsafely at the port for years and killed more than 200 people, injured thousands and destroyed swathes of Lebanon’s capital.

The report by the international rights watchdog contained over 700 pages of findings and documents. Its investigation also concluded there was evidence that multiple Lebanese authorities were criminally negligent under Lebanese law.

Some Lebanese officials knew about 2020 Beirut blast risks, took no action: Human Rights WatchSome Lebanese officials knew about 2020 Beirut blast risks, took no action: Human Rights Watch – Aug 3, 2021

HRW said President Michel Aoun, caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab, director general of state security Tony Saliba and other former ministers wanted for questioning by judge Bitar, had failed to take action to protect the general public despite having been informed of the risks.

Reuters sought comment on the report’s findings from Aoun, Diab and Saliba.

The presidential palace offered no comment. Saliba said his agency did all it could within its legal remit, filing legal reports to warn officials, and had an office open at the port only months before the blast. There was no immediate response from Diab.

READ MORE: Lebanon’s prime minister among those charged with negligence in Beirut explosion

Aoun said on Friday he was ready to testify and that no one was above the law. HRW based its report on official documents it reviewed and on multiple interviews with top officials including the president, the caretaker prime minister and the head of the country’s state security.

The investigation trailed events from 2014 onwards after the shipment was brought to Beirut port and tracked repeated warnings of danger to various official bodies.

“Evidence strongly suggests that some government officials foresaw the death that the ammonium nitrate’s presence in the port could result in and tacitly accepted the risk of the deaths occurring,” the report said.

0:45 Beirut explosion: Signs of life detected at building destroyed by blast – Sep 3, 2020

It called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to mandate an investigation into the blast and on foreign governments to impose human rights and corruption sanctions on officials.

A Lebanese investigation into the blast, led by Judge Tarek Bitar, has stalled. Politicians and senior security officials are yet to be questioned and requests to lift their immunity have been hindered.

A document seen by Reuters that was sent just over two weeks before the blast showed the president and prime minister were warned about the security risk posed by the chemicals stored at the port and that they could destroy the capital.

(Writing By Maha El Dahan, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

 

Protesters Call for Justice on Anniversary of Port of Beirut Blast

Image courtesy UNIFL

PUBLISHED AUG 4, 2021 7:34 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

On the first anniversary of the massive blast that rocked the Port of Beirut last year, thousands of citizens marched to the waterfront to demand accountability for the senior officials who are widely believed to bear responsibility for the explosion. 

The cxplosion of a poorly-stored cargo of ammonium nitrate killed more than 200 people and injured more than 7,000, leaving tens of thousands more without housing or work. Documents and testimony collected by Human Rights Watch suggest that "port, customs, and army officials ignored steps they could have taken to secure or destroy the material," many years before the blast. According to HRW, Ministry of Public Works and Transport officials were negligent in handling the cargo, and "knowingly stored the ammonium nitrate in Beirut’s port alongside flammable or explosive materials for nearly six years in a poorly secured and ventilated hangar in the middle of a densely populated commercial and residential area." 

Further, Lebanon's security apparatus - including Military Intelligence, which was responsible for the security of munitions at the port - was allegedly aware of the cargo's danger but took little action, despite repeated warnings. Even after members of Lebanon's Higher Defense Council were appraised - including the interior minister, the director of general security, the prime minister and the president - little timely intervention occurred. Prime Minister Hassan Diab was allegedly informed of the risk as early as June 3, 2020, but he canceled a personal inspection of the port after an advisor told him that the cargo wasn't that dangerous, according to HRW. In an interview, Diab told Human Rights Watch, "I then forgot about it, and nobody followed up. There are disasters every day."

In a lucky twist of fate, theft and diversion may have reduced the impact of the massive blast. The cargo was stored unguarded in a hangar with a broken door, adjacent to the port's grain silo. Photos obtained by HRW and Lebanese investigators appear to show that some of the one-tonne bags of ammonium nitrate in the hangar were partially empty, and others were spilled, indicating the possibility of pilferage. 

A recently-revealed FBI assessment of the blast estimated that 550 tonnes of ammonium nitrate - not 2,750 tonnes, the amount delivered and stored - had exploded on August 4, 2020. The FBI assessed that "it is not logical that all of [the one-tonne cargo bags] were present at the time of the explosion," suggesting that some of the cargo had gone missing and could not contribute to the strength of the explosion. 

The investigation into the cause of the blast has slowed, and investigating judge Tarek Bitar's efforts to question high-level officials and politicians have run into resistance from the political establishment. The previous judge on the case, Fadi Sawan, faced accusations of political bias for attempting to question high-ranking officials, and he was ultimately removed from the case by two of the politicians he was investigating. 

Bitar is finding traction in some parts of his investigation: on Friday, for the first time, Lebanese President Michel Aoun informed Lebanon's public prosecutor that he would be willing to give a statement to investigators about the circumstances behind the explosion.

Here is why the EU should sanction Lebanon’s bankers

The banking sector is responsible for the current crisis in Lebanon. Sanctioning its leaders can help effect a solution.


Sami Halabi
Director of Policy at the Beirut-based think tank Triangle
4 Aug 2021

This picture taken on November 27, 2019 shows a banner in Arabic, reading "we will not pay the price", hanging outside the headquarters of the Banque du Liban in Beirut [File: AFP/Joseph Eid]

One year has passed since the Beirut Port explosion of August 4, 2020. As summer temperatures are hitting record highs, so is the political temperature in Lebanon. The families of explosion victims have endured 12 months of lack of accountability and blatant interference in the judicial process. Public anger is simmering and threatening to boil over into another wave of unrest.

As the painful anniversary was drawing nearer, the European Union announced a framework that “provides for the possibility of imposing sanctions against persons and entities who are responsible for undermining democracy or the rule of law in Lebanon”. The long-anticipated move is effectively a warning shot aimed at pressuring Lebanon’s intransigent elites into undertaking reforms.

KEEP READING

Dozens hurt in Beirut clashes on port explosion anniversary

Lebanon police, protesters clash on Beirut blast anniversary

A year after the blast, Lebanon fights for its future

Beirut Blast: A Year On

Those same elites who presided over the explosion have shirked responsibility for Lebanon’s spiralling economic crisis – assessed by the World Bank as among the worst ever recorded. Political leaders have prioritised partisan squabbles over rebuilding the country, failing to replace the government that resigned after the explosion.

While pressure from the West is welcome, targeted sanctions on Lebanon’s politicians risk missing the mark unless they are more effective in their attack on the actual power structure of the country. And in Lebanon, true power – and culpability – lies in the nation’s banking sector, which is responsible for the ongoing economic demise of the country.

Together with the Banque du Liban (BDL), Lebanon’s central bank, commercial banks engaged in a regulated national Ponzi scheme that dug an $80bn public debt hole in the country’s finances. Instead of instituting capital controls and enacting a recovery plan, the BDL and the banking sector devised their own shadow financial plan, which employed blatantly illegal multiple exchange rates, informal capital controls, and the printing of vast amounts of local currency.

This current arrangement, which would surely qualify as misconduct under the EU sanctions framework, shunts the crushing burden of the crisis onto ordinary Lebanese, who have to take an up to 80-percent cut on their cash withdrawals.

These non-solutions have obliterated the life savings of the Lebanese people and left them struggling with chronic shortages of electricity, food, and pharmaceuticals – the import of which the BDL can no longer afford to subsidise from the country’s fast-dwindling foreign currency reserves. Yet, those with sufficient connections to the banking sector have already moved their money offshore, with an estimated $30bn leaving the country since mid-2019.

Sanctioning the banking sector would offer Western policymakers a technically sound and more effective regime than the “framework” proposed by the EU. That is because, to function effectively, sanctions need to be directed at a clearly defined group of individuals and entities that are culpable, have the power to influence change, and feel threatened by sanctions.

At present, the proposed EU sanctions target Lebanon’s political leaders, many of whom do not necessarily meet those criteria or who have demonstrated that they are unwilling to challenge the BDL or the banking sector, not least because of current or previous business ties to the industry.

A seminal study from 2016 found that individuals closely linked to the political elite controlled 43 percent of assets in Lebanon’s commercial banking sector. The same research found that eight families controlled 29 percent of the banking sector’s assets, led by the family of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

Through the investment company GroupMed Holding, the Hariri family currently controls the majority stake in BankMed, one of the largest banks in Lebanon. Saad Hariri’s successor as premier-designate, fellow billionaire Najib Mikati, who was under investigation for embezzling a state-backed housing fund, has close ties to Bank Audi, Lebanon’s largest bank by assets. Mikati’s brother and business associate, Taha, has a stake in Bank Audi through his investment company, Investment & Business Holding.

Both Hariri and Mikati have had ample chances to reform the banking sector and public finances when they were premiers. They did not do so and there is no reason to think they will do it in the future.

That is why direct sanctions on financial leaders might be more effective. For example, sanctions on BDL officials could help Lebanon strike a fair bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund. Currently, the main stumbling block before securing a loan programme is the need for an audit of the BDL. In the past, the central bank has repeatedly obstructed this process and would continue to do so until the current BDL governor and commercial banks have a real incentive to facilitate it – something which targeted EU sanctions could provide.

Smarter sanctions against Lebanese banks and bankers would also compel foreign institutions and businesses to stay away from Lebanon’s tainted banks. Years of soaring, irresponsible interest rates have attracted all sorts of hungry investors, including Arabian Gulf royals, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the World Bank-affiliated International Finance Corporation (IFC), and France’s official development agency, Agence Française de Développement (AFD).


At least for Western institutions, retaining stakes in banks directly involved in the “deliberate” economic meltdown of an entire nation should be an obvious moral hazard. The threat of Western sanctions would surely encourage them to pull out of Lebanon’s banking system.

While sanctions as an international pressure tool have sometimes been criticised for resulting in unfair collective punishment of whole nations, fears that the Lebanese people would suffer from such measures imposed on their financial leaders are also unfounded. It is hard to conceive how sanctioning the banks that devour people’s deposits could worsen the situation. If the sanctions are targeting specific individuals within the country’s financial elite, this would prevent any spillover that could affect the Lebanese public.

Furthermore, sanctions on the Lebanese financial sector have already proven effective in immediately producing change in the country. Over the past decade, two Lebanese banks were brought down by a simple edict from the US Department of the Treasury over suspected money laundering for Hezbollah.

Pressure from the US also cracked open Lebanon’s antiquated banking secrecy regime for the first time, as Lebanese banks sought to comply with Washington’s Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. The law requires banking institutions to provide information to US tax investigators about American customers.


Without decisive action, the future looks incredibly bleak for Lebanon, which is fast becoming a failed state. Should that happen, a repeat of the 2015 migrant crisis is not inconceivable; neither is another wave of radicalisation akin to the one which spawned ISIS.

Instead of watching on the sidelines as another political and humanitarian crisis unravels, the West could impose sanctions on the financial sector to turn the tide of Lebanon’s collapse. And the only cost of such measures would be making some already well-off bankers and politicians just a little less rich.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Sami Halabi

Director of Policy at the Beirut-based think tank Triangle

A year after Beirut blast, Lebanese diaspora in Canada demands accountability

Activist group brings together Lebanese people in 35 cities around the world

Michelle Ghoussoub · CBC News 

· Posted: Aug 04, 2021 

Julnar Doueik is a member of the United Diaspora Network — also called Meghterbin Mejtemiin — a group based in 35 cities around the world including Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa, that seeks to support Lebanon from abroad. 

(Antonin Sturlese/CBC)

A year after a massive explosion in Beirut killed 214 people, destroyed much of the city and sank Lebanon's economy further into despair, Lebanese Canadians are calling on Ottawa to redirect its financial assistance away from Lebanon's government while demanding a complete investigation into the blast.

On Aug. 4, 2020, a fire at the Port of Beirut ignited a stash of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had been stored for six years in a warehouse, without proper safety measures, after having been confiscated by the Lebanese authorities from an abandoned ship.

It was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history. Two Canadians, including a three-year-old girl, were among those killed.

Documents have since shown that high-level officials were warned multiple times of the risk but failed to act.

An investigation has so far failed to determine who ordered the shipment of chemicals and why officials ignored those warnings.

Parents of Canadian child killed in Beirut blast say lack of justice is 'enraging'

Julnar Doueik, who moved from Beirut to Vancouver just weeks before the explosion, says there has been little to no accountability, making it impossible to move on.

"Our wound is still open, our emotional and psychological bruises are as painful as they were a year ago — but we're also very furious because justice is nowhere to be found in Lebanon. The political class that is the cause of the Beirut blast, because of criminal negligence, they're still obstructing the investigation," she said.

"A lot of lives were lost. A whole city was destroyed. Canadian lives were lost as well during this explosion and we don't have answers."

People in Beirut carry pictures of some of the victims of the blast in the city's port district, during a march on Wednesday, as Lebanon marks the one-year anniversary of the explosion. (Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)

Doueik is part of the United Diaspora Network — also called Meghterbin Mejtemiin — a group based across 35 cities around the world including Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa, that seeks to support Lebanon from abroad.

The group is calling on the Canadian government to provide technical assistance in the investigation, to halt humanitarian assistance to the Lebanese government and to, instead, redirect funds to civil society groups.

Over the past year, Canada has provided around $50 million toward early recovery efforts, humanitarian assistance and long-term reconstruction of the city.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau said Wednesday that Canada continues to call for a full and transparent investigation.

"We continue to firmly stand with the Lebanese people and are ready to support them further. Canada will continue to reiterate that Lebanon's leaders must act now to form a government that can and will begin the reforms the country so desperately needs," Garneau said in a statement.

Thousands of Lebanese call for justice 1 year after massive explosion
Economic crisis deepens

Since the explosion, Lebanon has fallen further into economic crisis while trying to rebuild, leading to a devastating currency crash, hyperinflation and widespread shortages.

Doueik says the United Diaspora Network is fundraising to send supplies, including life-saving medicines, in suitcases with people travelling back to Lebanon.

"We're trying here to mobilize the Lebanese community in Canada. We need to gather our energy to support the people back home," she said.

"We get calls every day from our families back home, from friends, about how hard it is the get the basic supplies. Mothers cannot find milk for their babies. Sick people cannot find medicine. There's a shortage of electricity and fuel. It is heartbreaking."

A vigil for the victims of the blast will be held at UBC Robson Square in downtown Vancouver at 6 p.m. PT on Wednesday.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michelle Ghoussoub is a television, radio and digital reporter with CBC News in Vancouver. Reach her at michelle.ghoussoub@cbc.ca or on Twitter @MichelleGhsoub.

OPINION
Lebanon is edging toward the abyss, suffering from existential divisions stoked by sectarian leaders

DANY ASSAF
CONTRIBUTED TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
PUBLISHED  AUGUST 4, 2021
Dany Assaf is a Toronto-based lawyer and author and member of the Lebanese Canadian Coalition, which helped organize relief efforts for the Beirut explosion.

On this first anniversary of the devastating explosion in Beirut, it’s important to assess the broader damage suffered in Lebanon and the global implications. In the aftermath of the disaster, I worked with Lebanese Canadians and people from many other backgrounds to get humanitarian aid to Lebanon.

Yet a year on, the larger issues for Lebanon’s rebuilding and its progress remain unresolved as the country edges toward the abyss, threatened by forces of institutional corruption and outdated sectarian government structures.

At the time of the explosion, Canadians of all stripes and our government jumped to help because of the strong connections built over the past century. Many of us see Lebanon as an ancient crossroads of civilization and, like Canada, a place of accommodation between peoples of different faiths and family histories, and one that has contributed much beauty in poetry, the arts, fashion, food and culture.

Indeed, Lebanon is a place where Christians and Muslims share life and love of country. Yet today, sadly, it suffers from existential divisions. These divisions have been stoked and manipulated by sectarian leaders in the wake of the devastation of the explosion and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Lebanese joie de vivre is renowned, but today the country’s indelible spirit has been weakened and Lebanon is aching for a hand up. Sometimes in helping friends, we can also help ourselves by engaging globally in responsible ways to champion shared values. In this case, “we” means not only Canada, but the West generally as the values that are important to us are important to most Lebanese, who are fiercely independent people who cherish the value of freedom.

This is why the West can’t lose Lebanon. With recent failures to bring sustainable security and beat back threats to freedom in Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine and elsewhere, it becomes only more critical today for the West to prioritize help to save Lebanon. If, as U.S. President Joe Biden has stated, “America is back,” Lebanon is the place to unite the West to push back against the erosion of freedom we see in many corners.

While we have seen the folly of unwise military adventures, it doesn’t mean there isn’t a continuing role for leaders of freedom and inclusive progress to support liberal values in this increasingly multipolar world. Times change, but it remains constant that humans are born free, yet many people then spend their lives struggling to resist the efforts of others to control them. Regardless of what we see in any headline or government news release, humanity always yearns for freedom.

The loss of Lebanon and what it represents to its region and beyond would be a sad chapter in the current global climate. The country should be a model for religious accommodation, the advancement of women’s rights in Asia and entrepreneurial energy in the digital age.

Yet Lebanon is being threatened by a sectarian government framework that substitutes loyalty to sect for merit as the operating principle to run its vital functions. In short, Lebanon is an extreme example of a country no longer run in the interests of a large majority of its population, and it is incapable of self-correction.


So how can the country be fixed? Today, the U.S. is in the midst of renegotiating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran’s government, and a hard term of settlement should include support for the demilitarization of all militias in Lebanon and the consolidation of all military power in the hands of the Lebanese army.

This is an essential starting point, as the very definition of a nation is that the state controls its sole military power. As well, no significant investments can be made in a country with more than one military force.

Lebanon also represents key U.S. and Western interests as home to a large refugee population, and the collapse of Lebanon would trigger another wave of refugee migration to Europe. Successful efforts by the U.S., Canada and others may also improve Lebanese-Israeli security, and help set the stage for more effective future Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

Today, Canada should draw upon on its Lester B. Pearson moment in the Suez Crisis of 1956 to reinvigorate our diplomatic tools and rally global efforts to help save Lebanon and secure a win for freedom and hope in these messy times. It has often been said the world needs more Canada. The question today is whether Canada will deliver.

Thousands of Lebanese call for justice 1 year after massive explosion

214 people were killed in last year's blast, which was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever

The Associated Press · Posted: Aug 04, 2021 

Protesters crowd Beirut's streets on anniversary of fatal explosion
Thousands joined demonstrations Wednesday calling for justice on the one-year anniversary of a major explosion in Beirut that killed 214 people. Some demonstrators threw rocks and molotov cocktails, and were hit by security forces with tear gas and rubber bullets. 




United in grief and anger, victims' families were among several thousand Lebanese who marked one year since a horrific explosion at Beirut's port Wednesday — joining for a moment of silence and prayers at the foot of the silos that were shredded by the blast.

A few blocks away, near parliament, stone-throwing protesters clashed with security forces who fired water cannons and tear gas at them. At least six people were injured in the vicinity, a security source told Reuters.

The protesters accuse the security forces of blocking the investigation into the port blast by refusing to lift immunity of senior politicians implicated in negligence that led to the explosion.

The grim anniversary comes amid an unprecedented economic and financial meltdown, and a political stalemate that has kept the country without a functioning government for a full year.

The explosion killed at least 214 people, according to official records, and injured thousands.

Demonstrators hold photos of victims of last year's port blast during a march in Beirut on Wednesday. (Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)

The blast was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history — the result of hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate igniting after a fire broke out.

The explosion tore through the city with such force it caused a tremor across the entire country that was heard and felt as far away as the Mediterranean island of Cyprus more than 200 kilometres away.

It soon emerged in documents that the highly combustible nitrates had been haphazardly stored at the port since 2014 and that multiple high-level officials over the years knew of their presence and did nothing.

Protesters throw stones during a demonstration near parliament as Lebanon marks the one-year anniversary Wednesday of an explosion in Beirut. (Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)

A year later, the investigation has yet to answer questions such as who ordered the shipment of the chemicals and why officials ignored repeated internal warnings about how dangerous they were.

The chemicals arrived on a Russian-leased cargo ship that made an unscheduled stop in Beirut in 2013. An FBI report seen by Reuters last week estimated around 552 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded, far less than the 2,754 tonnes that arrived.

"It is shameful that officials evade the investigation under the cover of immunity," Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, Lebanon's most senior Christian cleric, said during a mass at the port on Wednesday.

"All immunities fall in the face of the victims' blood, there is no immunity against justice."

Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai leads a mass in memory of the victims of the explosion at the port in Beirut on Wednesday. (Aziz Taher/Reuters)

"We want to know who brought in the explosives … who allowed for their unloading and storage, who removed quantities of it and where it was sent."

French President Emmanuel Macron said Lebanese leaders owed the people the truth.

What critics are calling a lack of accountability around the explosion, which destroyed and damaged thousands of homes and businesses, has added to tensions and anguish in a country reeling from multiple other crises, including an economic unraveling so severe it has been described by the World Bank as one of the worst in the last 150 years.

A demonstrator holds the Lebanese flag during a protest near parliament as Lebanon marks the one-year anniversary of the explosion in Beirut. (Aziz Taher/Reuters)

The crisis has led to a dramatic currency crash and hyperinflation, plunging more than half the country's population below the poverty line.

On Wednesday, demonstrators chanted slogans against the country's political class, which is widely blamed for the port disaster and years of corruption and mismanagement that plunged Lebanon into bankruptcy.

WATCH | 'We miss her more and more every day,' says mother:

Parents of child killed in Beirut explosion say 'pain doesn't ease'

One year after their three-year-old daughter was killed in the explosion that devastated Beirut's port, Tracy and Paul Naggear say they're furious with Lebanese officials. 1:17

'We are all victims of this system'

"This is too big of a crime for it to be swept under the carpet," said Sara Jaafar — an architect whose house opposite the port was destroyed — as she marched toward the rally there.

"It's important for foreign countries to know we are against this murderous ruling class," Jaafar said. A year later, she has not been able to go back to her home, which like so many remains in ruins.

During Wednesday's demonstrations, families of the victims carried posters with photographs of their loved ones, as crowds lined up on both sides of the street applauded. During a memorial inside the port — which still holds the ruins of the giant silos — names of each person killed were read out. A huge metal gavel with the words "Act for Justice" was placed on a wall opposite the port.

"We are all victims of this system," said Paul Naggear, who's three-year-old child, Alexandra, died in the blast. He spoke on a podium outside the port.

Flags flew at half-staff over government institutions and embassies. Medical labs and COVID-19 vaccination centres were closed to mark the day. Reflecting the raw anger at the country's ruling class, posters assailing authorities were hung on the facades of defaced buildings across from the port.

"This is a day of pain and grief," said Ibrahim Hoteit, a spokesperson for victims' families who lost his brother in the blast. "It is the day we lost our loved ones and relatives and children. We hope all those coming down [to the streets] in solidarity with us to respect our pain,"

A year after the gigantic explosion at the port of Beirut, the investigations and rebuilding by the Lebanese government have not advanced, while one in three families in Lebanon has children still showing signs of trauma, UNICEF said Tuesday. 

(Marwan Tahtah/Getty Images)

In a statement Wednesday afternoon, the Lebanese army said it arrested a number of people who were on their way to take part in anniversary commemorations. The army said the people who were arrested had a large number of weapons and ammunition in their possession.

In Beirut's eastern neighborhood of Gemayzeh, a fist fight broke out between supporters of the Lebanese Communist Party and others who support the right-wing Christian Lebanese Forces. Several people were lightly injured by the exchange of stone throwing, before security forces opened fire in the air and dispersed the two sides.
'Tainted with blood'

In an extensive investigative report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday called for an international probe into the port blast, accusing Lebanese authorities of trying to thwart the investigation.

HRW said a lack of judicial independence, constitution-imposed immunity for high-level officials and a range of procedural and systemic flaws in the domestic investigation rendered it "incapable of credibly delivering justice."

Meanwhile, an international conference co-hosted by France and the United Nations on Wednesday raised over $357 million US in aid required to meet the country's growing humanitarian needs, including $118.6 million pledged by France, the former colonial power in Lebanon.

LISTEN'We are on survival mode': Lebanon's financial crisis limiting basic supplies including medicine, says doctor

Q&AChampagne surveys Beirut, says 'people are fed up' after the explosion

At the Vatican, Pope Francis recalled the suffering of Lebanese people, as he held his first weekly audience with the public since surgery a month ago.

"A year after the terrible explosion in the port of Beirut, Lebanon's capital, that caused death and destruction, my thoughts go to that dear country, above all to the victims, to their families," the pontiff said.

"And so many lost the illusion of living."

A relative of one of the victims of last year's port blast reacts while carrying his photo during a march in Beirut on Wednesday. (Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)

With files from Reuters

What we still don't know about Beirut's port explosion

It's been a year since one of the world's largest ever non-nuclear explosions ripped through Lebanon's capital, killing more than 200 people.

By Tamara Qiblawi, CNN 

© Houssam Hariri/NurPhoto/Getty Images A view of the port the day after a massive explosion at the port on August 5, 2020 in Beirut, Lebanon. According to the Lebanese Red Cross, at the moment over 100 people died in the explosion and over 4,000 were injured in explosion at Beirut Port. Officials said a waterfront warehouse storing explosive materials, reportedly 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate, was the cause of the blast. (Photo by Houssam Hariri/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

On any given day in Beirut's worst-affected neighborhoods, theories about the explosion still circulate. No two stories of human tragedy are alike, and most interactions between people here end not with a goodbye, but with an invocation that Lebanon's ruling elite be toppled.

© Marwan Naamani/dpa/picture alliance/Getty Images A man sits in the rubble of a destroyed house near the port, almost a year after the blast.

The political class is, overwhelmingly, blamed for the disaster.

At just after 6 p.m. on August 4, 2020, hundreds of metric tons of ammonium nitrate ignited, sparking the massive blast in the city's port.

The industrial chemicals had been improperly stored there for years due to the failure to act by successive governments and lawmakers across the political divide. That much is clear.

But for people across Lebanon, there are still many unanswered questions about what led to the tragedy, and there has been no sense of closure in the 12 months since the explosion.

Here's what we still don't know.

What triggered the blast?

Because of the many inquiries by journalists and rights groups over the past year, we know that the ammonium nitrate -- stored alongside fireworks in a poorly maintained warehouse -- was a disaster waiting to happen.

Six urgent letters sent by customs officials since 2014 -- the year the material was unloaded at the port under mysterious circumstances -- had alerted the authorities to the danger posed by the chemicals.

One was written by a port official in May 2020, just months before the blast. "This substance, if ignited, will lead to a large explosion, and its outcome will almost obliterate the port of Beirut. If the substance were exposed to any kind of theft, the thief would be able to use this substance to build explosives," warned the document, which was obtained by CNN after the incident.

Beirut's port is just 100 meters from some of the city's most densely-populated neighborhoods. The blast destroyed not only a large part of the port, but also left swathes of the city in tatters. The damage was estimated at between $3.8 and $4.6 billion.

It is clear that successive leaders — four governments and three prime ministers — either would have or should have known about the threat posed by the material, and that little was done to address the danger.

But what is far from clear, 12 months on, is what ignited the ammonium nitrate.

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, Tarek Bitar, the judge charged with investigating the explosion, is looking into several theories.

One is that sparks from welding works that day caused a fire in hangar 12, the warehouse where the chemical was being stored.

Another is that an Israeli strike was the catalyst, though Lebanese aviation officials reported that local radar systems did not detect military aircraft over Lebanese airspace in the hour or so before the blast, Israeli officials have denied any involvement, and Bitar himself has said the Israel theory was highly unlikely, according to HRW's report.

Bitar is also exploring the theory that the explosion was an intentional act, according to HRW.

"Speculation that Hezbollah may have wanted to destroy the ammonium nitrate at the port supposedly to hide that some of the ammonium nitrate in the stockpile had been used by Hezbollah's ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria to produce barrel bombs increased as reporting emerged regarding the connection between the cargo owners and individuals sanctioned by the US for alleged links to Assad," the report said, referring to an investigative report by local journalist Firas Hatoum.

Hatoum linked the shipment of ammonium nitrate -- which that arrived in 2013 and was unloaded the following year -- to companies linked to, according to the HRW report, Syrian-Russian businessmen "who have been sanctioned by the US government for acting on behalf of the Syrian government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad."

Hezbollah has repeatedly denied involvement in the blast.

Several Lebanese factions were heavily involved in Syria's civil war earlier in the conflict. Affiliates of Lebanon's Saudi-backed former prime minister, Saad Hariri, materially aided anti-Assad forces for a time. Hezbollah intervened on Assad's behalf and is widely believed to have helped save his presidency.

Adding to the mystery around the ammonium nitrate is the fact that all of Lebanon's major political parties have a strong presence at the port.

"Lebanon's main political parties, including Hezbollah, the Free Patriotic Movement, the Future Movement, the Lebanese Forces, the Amal Movement, and others, have benefited from the port's ambiguous status and poor governance and accountability structures," the HRW report said.

"Political parties have installed loyalists in prominent positions in the port, often positioning them to accrue wealth, siphon off state revenues, smuggle goods, and evade taxes in ways that benefit them or people connected to them," it added.

Was any ammonium nitrate missing? What happened to it?

The judicial investigation's third theory, that the ignition was an intentional act, has gained prominence over the past year.

Several reports have suggested that far less ammonium nitrate exploded last August than initially thought. According to Reuters, an FBI report estimated that only 20% of the 2,755 tons of ammonium nitrate brought to the port in 2013 actually detonated. The HRW report also cited an August 2020 investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project in which three European intelligence sources estimated that the size of the blast was equivalent to as little as 700- 1,000 tons.

The theory goes that the ammonium nitrate was left at the port, where it could be siphoned off by factions in Lebanon.

Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab told CNN he only found out about the existence of the ammonium nitrate in early June 2020, and immediately requested further information. He said he received a file on the situation at the port on July 22 -- but that the part predicting the catastrophic effects of an explosion had been omitted.

Diab said he forwarded the file to the Ministry of Public Works, under whose purview the port falls, and the Ministry of Justice, and asked them to investigate the chemicals at the port.

CNN has seen a document showing that the Ministry of Public Works stamped the front of the file on August 4, 2020.

The blast happened at 6.08 p.m. the same day.

In a December 2020 interview with CNN, Diab -- by then the country's caretaker Prime Minister -- called the timing "suspicious."

"There is something suspicious for (the report) to come in July 22 ... and then for it to blow up. There is something suspicious. Even though this is a seven-year issue. Seven years, for God's sake," Diab told CNN at the time. "There's something that's unexplainable, the timing of this."

How will Beirut rebuild?

Perhaps one of the most glaring unanswered questions surrounding the Beirut port explosion is whether the city will ever go back to what it was.

Since the blast, the city has buckled under the strain of a rapidly plummeting currency, long power outages, and severe medicine, milk and fuel shortages. Lebanon's dire economic straits mean most of the rebuilding efforts have been privately funded, or supported by non-profit organizations. A year later, much of the repair work is still ongoing.

But many home and shop owners say they neither have the financial means nor the psychological strength to return to affected neighborhoods.

"They've ruined us. I'd sell my soul to leave this country," said one shop owner on the once hip but still extensively damaged Gemmayze street, referring to the country's ruling class. "May they never again see a good day."

Lebanon’s middle class joins mass exodus – or finds creative ways to survive at home



Issued on: 01/08/2021 -

Rescue workers dig through the rubble of a badly damaged building in Lebanon's capital Beirut, in search of possible survivors on September 3, 2020, a month after a mega-blast at the port destroyed much of the city. © Joseph Eid, AFP

Text by: Charlotte WILKINS


Thousands of middle-class Lebanese families have moved overseas since the August 4, 2020, blast that rocked the city of Beirut. Some of those leaving town, particularly those who grew up during the 1975-1990 civil war, want a better quality of life and security for their children. But not everyone has the luxury of leaving.

When Fouad Assaf, 51, first felt the tremors of the explosion that rocked the capital last August 4, he rushed to the Red Cross in the hard-hit district of Gemmayze where he has volunteered as a first aid worker for the past 30 years.

As he searched through the rubble for survivors and helped treat the injured, he had a “revelation” – a “huge shock in that I realised that nothing here would change”.

While Beirut reeled from one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, a blast that killed 218 people, injured another 7,000 and destroyed much of the city, Assaf began making plans to leave.

Like his fellow Lebanese, he had been grappling with the growing struggles of day-to-day life in Beirut: queuing three hours for petrol, working around the lack of electricity, trying to feed his family on a sharply dwindling income and struggling to get hold of basic medicines like paracetamol

Lebanon’s current economic crisis is “among the world’s worst in 150 years”, according to the World Bank, and it has thrown the country into turmoil.

Citizens are wrestling with soaring unemployment, record hyperinflation, the plummeting value of the Lebanese pound and growing food insecurity – as well as the Covid-19 crisis. More than half the people in the tiny Middle Eastern nation now live below the poverty line.

But for Assaf, the August 2020 explosion was the “coup de grace”. At the end of the summer he and his family leave Lebanon for Paris, where his children are now enrolled in school.

“Many people were thinking about leaving before August 4,” said Assaf, a technology entrepreneur and father of two young boys. “But the explosion woke them up.”

As a boy growing up during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, he spent his “entire childhood” hearing his parents say the war would end at any moment.

“This week, next month, the international delegate is coming, the United Nations is coming, this next week, next year, we're going to get our Lebanon back,” he recounted in a sing-song voice.

“We don’t want to put our children through what we went through,” he said simply.

“Many of our friends have left,” he continued. “All the teachers and the doctors are leaving. That means the quality of medical care will plummet, the quality of education will plummet.”

Les nouveaux pauvres

“There is no more middle class in Beirut,” he said. “Those who have the means to leave have left, the others will leave very soon … the middle class who stay behind are les nouveaux pauvres (the new poor).”

Hala Dahrouge, 42, is used to hearing about “highly educated” Lebanese people going hungry.

Stories of people living without electricity, mothers unable to feed their kids for a whole week and people being kicked out of their homes because they can’t pay the rent fill her Facebook feed all day long.

“It’s horrible, it’s horrendous what’s happening,” she said, deploring “the lack of medicine – the lack of everything”.

“A 10-month-old baby died because her father couldn’t find the medicine he needed in any pharmacy in Lebanon,” Dahrouge said.

Hala Dahrouge, 42, founded LibanTroc, an online bartering platform to encourage “solidarity among Lebanese” in December 2019. © LibanTroc

In December 2019, just months into the country’s deepening financial crisis, she launched LibanTroc, an online bartering platform to encourage “solidarity among Lebanese”.

What began as a spontaneous gesture on Facebook – and a way of circumventing the extortionate exchange rates between the US dollar and the Lebanese pound – quickly grew into a large humanitarian community, run by volunteers and largely funded by small contributions from the Lebanese diaspora.

LibanTroc, which now has more than 73,000 members on Facebook, also helps the homeless and young drug addicts to get off the streets. Volunteers deliver medicine, food boxes and clothes to those in need. They help people find jobs, start businesses and look after their mental health.

“We deal with cases in a very transparent way,” said Dahrouge, explaining that every request for help is carefully verified. “So donors trust us.”

LibanTroc is her “daily dose of positivity”. Sometimes she closes 10 cases a day, some of them in less than half an hour. She’s delighted that no one has ever been turned down. And she’s endlessly touched by those “keen to pay it forward” – people who want to give them a stroller, or medicine they don’t need any more, so they can be redistributed.

But right now, Dahrouge, a mother of three, thinks about leaving Lebanon “every single day”.

She is tired of trying to cook for her kids without power, organising her day around three-hour electricity blackouts and managing the household budget on an ever-decreasing income.

She can no longer buy the breakfast cereals her kids are used to. Brands like Nescafé and Nutella have to be scratched off the shopping list.

She’s worn down by living with no social security and no free healthcare, trying to raise teenagers who are “traumatised” by the explosion.

"People are so depressed, drained and helpless, everyone is in ‘survival mode’,” she said. “We can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

LibanTroc, an online bartering platform, now has nearly 73,000 members on Facebook. © LibanTroc

Sometimes she thinks about sending out her CV to try to get a job overseas. Before the economic crisis, she worked as a copywriter and advertising creative director – until the “clients stopped paying and advertising projects ran out”.

But the thought of leaving Lebanon is “heartbreaking”.

“Leaving your home, everything – just to try and fix your pieces back together,” she said.

“Just when I think of it I want to cry. I love my country. The warmth of the people … we are like one big family.”

But even if she decides to leave Lebanon, she can’t. All her savings – the money she put aside for her children’s education – are stuck in one of Lebanon’s moribund banks because of the liquidity problem.

She can only withdraw a small amount of Lebanese lira a month. Air tickets have to be paid for in “fresh dollars” – dollars transferred from overseas rather than “local dollars”.

But while Dahrouge, like many others in Lebanon, feels like she is “held hostage”, Lebanon’s ruling elite smuggled their money out of the country when the economic crisis first began.

“They are travelling, enjoying holidays and big weddings abroad while people are digging in garbage,” said Dahrouge with disgust. “They are monsters.”

‘Not a bankrupt state, a stolen state’

“Why is [Saad] Hariri on the French Riviera?” asked Maya Ibrahimchah, 48, founder of the NGO Beit el Baraka, referring to Lebanon’s former prime minister who was recently named PM-designate. “Where are the dollars that he stole?”

“All the superpowers know exactly where the money is. It’s placed in banks, in the United States and France and Switzerland. Give us back our money.”

“Riad Salamé (governor of Lebanon’s central bank, La Banque du Liban) is a French citizen – why doesn’t France sanction him?” she asked.

“Lebanon is not a bankrupt state, it’s a stolen state.”

Back in Christmas 2018, Ibrahimchah was despairing of the “ingrained” corruption in Lebanese society when she met a retired French teacher living under a bridge.

Maya Chams Ibrahimchah, who set up the NGO Beit el Baraka in February 2019, is staying firmly put in Lebanon. © Maya Chams Ibrahimchah

Astonished to find this “well-dressed, highly educated woman” in such dire straits – teachers in Lebanon’s private sector have no pension plan – in February 2019 she opened a small supermarket where people shopped for free with points. Every month she renewed their points; those who could help out were given more.

She started out by helping some 228 families. Then six months later, when the revolution kicked off as the economy went into freefall, she found herself supporting 175,000 individuals.

“People were falling all around us like flies,” said Ibrahimchah. “What was happening was horrible – people were losing their lives, their livelihoods, dignity, [struggling for] food. It was surreal and it was only the beginning.”

Now, in the wake of the Beirut blast, her NGO has already rebuilt 311 homes and she plans to put some 32,000 children through school.

For in the days after the explosion, it was volunteers and NGOs – made up of the country’s youth and funded by the Lebanese diaspora – who swept the rubble and debris from the street. In the absence of the state, NGOs and associations looked after the wounded, collected the names of the missing and the dead, and provided the thousands of newly homeless citizens with food and shelter.

“Civil society simply took over the government,” said Ibrahimchah.

“I’m not saying this is a good thing,” she went on. “Every country needs to have a government.”

“But what’s important is that NGOs are setting new standards of governance,” she said, delighted that NGOs were managing to infiltrate “extremely corrupt” public institutions.

But given the raft of problems facing Lebanon, Ibrahimchah understands that leaving is the only option for some people at the moment.

“There are people in very, very difficult situations, people who lost everything and they need to save their lives.”

Every day she sees formerly comfortable families selling their pianos, their pictures, the dining room table and chairs – just so that they can afford to eat.

She understands that “extremely, extremely underpaid” nurses, some of whom are on salaries of $30 a month, need to leave for a while – and that then they’ll return.

But she’s disappointed by prominent doctors on fat salaries taking up posts at Harvard and Cambridge with no plans to come back to their country.

“Why couldn’t they even wait one year to see what was going to happen? Elections are going to take place in May, June – July if they get postponed. Couldn’t they – the wealthy elites – wait a few months?” she asked.

Ibrahimchah herself won’t be “going anywhere”.

“Citizenship is like a marriage,” she said. “It’s for better or for worse. If things go bad, you just try to fix it.

“How are we going to rebuild this bloody country if everybody keeps leaving?”