Lebanon premier stepping down

Leader quits, criticizes elite after explosion that killed at least 160

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s prime minister resigned Monday amid public fury about official negligence that led to an explosion so massive that it devastated swaths of the capital.

In a televised address, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said a level of corruption “bigger than the state” precipitated the events that led to the blast, which erupted in a warehouse that contained 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate that had been stored there for six years despite repeated warnings that it was unsafe.

“Only God knows how many catastrophes they are hiding,” he said in an apparent reference to the country’s ruling elite. “That’s why I have announced my resignation today. May Allah protect Lebanon.”

President Michel Aoun said Diab and his cabinet will stay on in a caretaker capacity until a new government is formed.

The warehouse explosion last Tuesday killed at least 160 people, wounded more than 6,000 and left as many as 300,000 homeless. And as Beirut has emerged from its shock, it has mostly been the people, not the authorities, who have swept the rubble and glass from the streets.

People with ties to the government said Diab had lost the support of powerful politicians who had originally backed his government. These politicians feared that he was going too far in investigating corruption.

“The system realized that he was going to investigate the port properly,” said an adviser to Diab’s government.

Diab’s announcement that he would lift Lebanon’s stringent banking secrecy laws on 19 port officials, who had been placed under house arrest after the explosion, alarmed politicians, the adviser said.

As Diab announced his resignation, there was little celebration among demonstrators in Beirut’s central Martyrs’ Square. Protesters thronged the downtown streets for a third day as security forces used tear gas to push them back.

They have also placed nooses in a public square and demanded the death penalty for members of the ruling elite.

“The government has resigned, but it’s not about the government,” a 24-year-old demonstrator said Monday, his eyes streaming from tear gas and bandages affixed to his head and leg from wounds inflicted in the blast last week.

“The government has been here six months, but the problems have been here 30 years,” said the man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear that his employment might be affected. “This political class needs to go.”