Army finds massive fireworks cache at devastated Beirut port

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s army said it had found 1.3 tonnes of fireworks during a search of Beirut port, which was devastated last month in a huge blast that was blamed on a large quantity of chemicals kept in poor condition.

The army said in a statement, released on its website on Friday, that 1,320 kgs of fireworks were found in 120 boxes in a warehouse during a search of the port.

It said army engineers disposed of them. The port and a swathe of central Beirut was ruined by the huge blast on Aug.4 that killed at least 190 people.

It was blamed on 2,750 tonnes of highly explosive ammonium nitrate kept at the port for years in poor condition.

Warehouses and concrete grain silos at the port were destroyed.

Lebanon’s army said on Sept.3 that it had also found a further 4.35 tonnes of ammonium nitrate near the entrance to Beirut port, which the army said at the time it was dealing with.

Separately, Lebanon’s army said on Saturday that it has carried out a survey of more than 85,000 dwellings, businesses and other building units damaged by the massive Beirut port blast last month.

“A total of 85,744 affected units have been surveyed,” the army said.

It had surveyed 60,818 housing units, 19,115 businesses, 1,137 heritage units, 962 restaurants, 82 teaching institutions and 12 hospitals, among other unis.

It recorded almost 550,000 square metres (half a square kilometre) of glass ravaged, and well as 140,000 square metres of glass facades broken.

More than 108,000 doors had been damaged, the survey showed.

The army said it was still looking for nine people — three Lebanese, five Syrians and an Egyptian — still missing ater the blast.

The survey “is considered to be sufficient, and there is therefore no need for further surveys by donor countries”, it said in a statement.

The army said the donors, non-governmental organisations or volunteers could request access to the results.

On Aug.9, international donors pledged over 250 million euros ( around $300 million) in emergency aid, in a video conference jointly organised by France and the United Nations.

French President Emmanuel Macron vowed in early September during a second visit to Lebanon since the blast to host a second conference in Paris in the second half of October.

A party founded by Lebanon’s Christian president made a proposal to end a dispute that has blocked the formation of a new cabinet and threatened a French drive to lit the country out of its worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

The proposal, put forward on Saturday, involved handing major ministries to smaller sectarian groups in a country where power is shared between Muslims and Christians.

There was no immediate comment from Shiite groups, which have insisted they choose who fills several posts.

But a political source familiar with the thinking of dominant Shiite groups said the idea was unlikely to work.

Lebanon’s efforts to switly form a new government have run into the sand over how to pick ministers in a country where political loyalties mostly follow sectarian religious lines.

A Sept. 15 deadline agreed with France to name a cabinet has passed. Paris, which is leading an international push to haul Lebanon back from economic collapse, has voiced exasperation and told Beirut to act “without delay.”

The leader of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), the party founded by President Michel Aoun and allied to Hizbollah, proposed “undertaking an experiment to distribute the so-called sovereign ministries to smaller sects, specifically to the Druze, Alawites, Armenians and Christian minorities.”

The statement was issued ater Gebran Bassil, FPM head and son-in-law of the president, chaired a meeting of the party’s political leadership. Bassil is a Maronite, Lebanon’s largest Christian community.

Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib, a Sunni Muslim under Lebanon’s sectarian system of power sharing, wants to shake up the leadership of ministries, some of which have been controlled by the same factions for years.

France’s foreign ministry had said on Friday that Lebanon’s political forces need to assume their responsibilities and immediately form a government under the auspices of Prime Minister Mustapha Adib.

“As Lebanon goes through an unprecedented crisis, France regrets that Lebanese politicians have not yet managed to keep the commitments they made on Sept.1, 2020 according to the announced timetable,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said in a daily briefing.

“We urge all the Lebanese political forces to assume their responsibilities and agree without delay on the formation by Moustapha Adib of a mission government capable of launching the necessary reforms to meet the aspirations of the Lebanese people.”