Lebanese MP Says Assad Associates Imported Chemicals Behind Beirut Port Blast

A massive explosion at the Beirut Port on August 4 killed more than 200 people and laid waste to large swathes of the Lebanese capital. AFP file photo
A massive explosion at the Beirut Port on August 4 killed more than 200 people and laid waste to large swathes of the Lebanese capital. AFP file photo
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Lebanese MP Says Assad Associates Imported Chemicals Behind Beirut Port Blast

A massive explosion at the Beirut Port on August 4 killed more than 200 people and laid waste to large swathes of the Lebanese capital. AFP file photo
A massive explosion at the Beirut Port on August 4 killed more than 200 people and laid waste to large swathes of the Lebanese capital. AFP file photo

Syrians close to President Bashar al-Assad have brought the dangerous chemicals that exploded on August 4 at the Beirut Port, member of the Strong Republic parliamentary bloc MP Maged Eddy Abillama said Sunday.

The MP said he has informed the public prosecutor about the information he has to support the ongoing investigation into the devastating explosion.

Abillama said he will reveal more information on Tuesday.

“I will visit, with the head of the Change Movement, lawyer Elie Mahfoud, the office of the public prosecutor to file a complaint over the crime of the Beirut Port blast,” he said in a television interview.

“The Syrian regime benefited from its proxies in Lebanon to place the ammonium nitrate at the Port of Beirut. The judiciary should assume its responsibilities,” he said.

The deputy said every party linked to the explosion should be punished.

“We should gather all information that reveals what happened and hold those who destroyed Beirut accountable,” Abillama added.

More than five months after the blast, little light has been shed on the circumstances that led to Lebanon's worst peacetime disaster, which is widely blamed on decades of negligence and corruption by the country's ruling elite.

The slow pace of the investigation has sparked outrage at home and fueled distrust among international donors, whose support is much needed if Lebanon is to stand a chance of surviving its deepest economic crisis in decades.



US, Arab Mediators Make Some Progress in Gaza Peace Talks, No Deal Yet

Palestinians inspect damaged residential buildings where two Israeli hostages were reportedly held before being rescued during an operation by Israeli security forces in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 12, 2024. (AP)
Palestinians inspect damaged residential buildings where two Israeli hostages were reportedly held before being rescued during an operation by Israeli security forces in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 12, 2024. (AP)
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US, Arab Mediators Make Some Progress in Gaza Peace Talks, No Deal Yet

Palestinians inspect damaged residential buildings where two Israeli hostages were reportedly held before being rescued during an operation by Israeli security forces in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 12, 2024. (AP)
Palestinians inspect damaged residential buildings where two Israeli hostages were reportedly held before being rescued during an operation by Israeli security forces in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 12, 2024. (AP)

US and Arab mediators have made some progress in their efforts to reach a ceasefire accord between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, but not enough to seal a deal, Palestinian sources close to the talks said on Thursday.
As talks continued in Qatar, the Israeli military carried out strikes across the enclave, killing at least 17 people, Palestinian medics said.
Qatar, the US and Egypt are making a major push to reach a deal to halt fighting in the 15-month conflict and free remaining hostages held by the Hamas group before President Joe Biden leaves office.
President-elect Donald Trump has warned there will be "hell to pay", if the hostages are not released by his inauguration on Jan. 20.
On Thursday, a Palestinian official close to the mediation effort said the absence of a deal so far did not mean the talks were going nowhere and said this was the most serious attempt so far to reach an accord.
"There are extensive negotiations, mediators and negotiators are talking about every word and every detail. There is a breakthrough when it comes to narrowing old existing gaps but there is no deal yet," he told Reuters, without giving further details.
On Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Ministry Director General Eden Bar-Tal said Israel was fully committed to reaching an agreement to return its hostages from Gaza but faces obstruction from Hamas.
The two sides have been at an impasse for a year over two key issues. Hamas has said it will only free its remaining hostages if Israel agrees to end the war and withdraw all its troops from Gaza. Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled and all hostages are free.
SEVERE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
On Thursday, the death toll from Israel's military strikes included eight Palestinians killed in a house in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, where Israeli forces have operated for more than three months. Nine others, including a father and his three children, died in two separate airstrikes on two houses in central Gaza Strip, health officials said.
There was no Israeli military comment on the two incidents.
More than 46,000 people have been killed in the Gaza war, according to Palestinian health officials. Much of the enclave has been laid waste and most of the territory's 2.1 million people have been displaced multiple times and face acute shortages of food and medicine, humanitarian agencies say.
Israel denies hindering humanitarian relief to Gaza and says it has facilitated the distribution of hundreds of truckloads of food, water, medical supplies and shelter equipment to warehouses and shelters over the past week.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. On Wednesday, the Israeli military said troops had recovered the body of Israeli Bedouin hostage Youssef Al-Ziyadna, along with evidence that was still being examined suggesting his son Hamza, taken on the same day, may also be dead.
"We will continue to make every effort to return all of our hostages, the living and the deceased," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.