Lebanon’s prime minister and his cabinet are set to resign in the wake of the devastating Beirut explosion which has killed at least 163 people.
PM Hassan Diab will address the nation tonight and his health minister Hamad Hasan says the Hezbollah-backed leader is expected to announce his resignation.
Several ministers have already walked out amid public outrage over the blast, while President Michel Aoun – who has rejected calls for an independent international probe into the disaster – is also facing calls to quit.
Last Tuesday’s detonation of more than 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate killed at least 163 people, injured more than 6,000 and destroyed swathes of the bustling Mediterranean capital, compounding months of political and economic meltdown.
Many in Lebanon see the blast as a symbol of corruption and incompetence among the country’s elite and protests have broken out in the wake of the disaster.
Lebanon’s prime minister Hassan Diab (pictured) and his cabinet are set to resign in the wake of the devastating Beirut explosion, reports in the country claim
A man stands on rubble at the site of last Tuesday’s Beirut blast which has killed more than 150 people and pushed the government to the brink of resignation
Diab’s cabinet, which was formed in January with the backing of the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah, met on Monday with many ministers wanting to resign.
The information and environment ministers quit on Sunday as well as several lawmakers, and the justice minister followed them out on Monday.
Finance minister Ghazi Wazni, a key negotiator with the IMF over a rescue plan, is believed to have gone to the cabinet meeting with a resignation letter.
Lebanon is already seeking $20billion in funding from the IMF and now faces billions more in disaster costs, with losses from the explosion estimated to be between $10billion and $15billion.
Lebanon’s system is modelled on that of colonial power France, where the president appoints the prime minister and would not have to resign along with the cabinet.
Prime minister Diab said on Saturday he would request early parliamentary elections.
‘The entire regime needs to change. It will make no difference if there is a new government,’ said Joe Haddad, a Beirut engineer. ‘We need quick elections.’
Last Tuesday’s blast is thought to have been caused by a stockpile of ammonium nitrate which had been left unsecured at the port since 2013.
The Lebanese army said today that another five bodies were pulled from the rubble with the help of Russian and French rescue teams, raising the death toll to 163.
The explosion, which drew comparisons with the Hiroshima atom bomb 75 years ago, has also injured more than 6,000 people and left 300,000 homeless.
The disaster also sparked widespread panic over wheat shortages after 15,000 tonnes of grains were blasted out of the silos.
The cabinet decided to refer the investigation of the blast to the judicial council, the highest legal authority whose rulings cannot be appealed.
Lebanon’s president had previously said explosive material was stored unsafely for years at the port.
He said an investigation would consider whether the cause was external interference as well as negligence or an accident.
‘There are two possible scenarios for what happened: it was either negligence or foreign interference through a missile or bomb,’ he said last Friday.
Russian emergency personnel walk on the site of the explosion in the port of Beirut, where rescuers are continuing their recovery efforts nearly a week after the blast
Beirut’s governor said many foreign workers and truck drivers remained missing and were assumed to be among the casualties.
Anti-government protests in the past two days have been the biggest since October, when demonstrators took to the streets over the country’s economic crisis.
Protesters accused the political elite of siphoning off state resources after last week mobbing French president Emmanuel Macron with demands for reform.
‘If reforms are not carried out, Lebanon will continue to sink,’ Macron said after being met at the airport by President Aoun last week.
Officials have estimated losses of around $15billion from the explosion, a bill which Lebanon cannot afford after already defaulting on sovereign debt.
Eli Abi Hanna’s house and his car repair shop were destroyed in the blast.
‘The economy was already a disaster and now I have no way of making money again,’ he said. ‘It was easier to make money during the civil war. The politicians and the economic disaster have ruined everything.’
Some Lebanese doubt change is possible in a country where sectarian politicians have dominated since the 1975-90 conflict.
‘It won’t work, it’s just the same people. It’s a mafia,’ said Antoinette Baaklini, an employee of an electricity company that was demolished in the blast.
Workers picked up fallen masonry near the building where wall graffiti mocked Lebanon’s chronic electricity crisis: ‘Everyone else in the world has electricity while we have a donkey.’
‘It will always be the same. It is just a political game, nothing will change,’ said university student Marilyne Kassis.
An emergency international donor conference on Sunday raised pledges worth nearly 253 million euros ($298 million) for immediate humanitarian relief.
But foreign countries demand transparency over how the aid is used, wary of writing blank cheques to a government perceived by its own people as deeply corrupt.
Some are concerned about the influence of Shi’ite movement Hezbollah, which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Monday that countries should refrain from politicising the port blast. He called on the United States to lift sanctions against Lebanon.
Lebanese, meanwhile, are struggling to come to terms with the scale of losses. Entire neighbourhoods were wrecked.
‘It is very sad. We are burying people every day. Forty percent of my church have lost their businesses,’ said a priest.