The European Union said Tuesday that the investigation into last year’s devastating explosion at the port of Beirut has to be completed “as soon as possible.”
In a statement, Peter Stano, spokesperson for the EU's foreign policy service, also said that the probe “should be impartial, credible, transparent as well as independent.”
The investigation “should be allowed to proceed without any interference in legal proceedings and those responsible for this tragedy should be held accountable,” he said.
“It is up to the Lebanese authorities to enable the investigation to continue with all the necessary human and financial resources so that it can finally shed light into what happened in August last year and provide credible answers to the pressing questions from the Lebanese people why it happened and how it happened,” he added.
The massive August 2020 blast at the port killed at least 215 people, injured thousands more and devastated entire neighborhoods of the Lebanese capital.
Hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive material used in fertilizer, had been improperly stored in the port for years with apparent prior knowledge of many of the country's top leaders.
