Documents sent to ministries as part of the probe clarified how dangerous the ammonium nitrate could be and warned that “burning it will cause a major explosion and the result will be the near-total destruction of the harbor.”
CNN has seen some of the documents enclosed in a file sent to the Department of Public Works.
Public Works Minister Michel Najjar reviewed the documents late on Aug. 3 and ordered ministry officials to follow up on the matter, the concierge prime minister’s office said. A stamp on the documents received by the ministry was dated August 4, 2020 – the same day the port of Beirut was torn up when the chemical detonated.
CNN has requested comment from Najjar and has received no response.
At least 204 people died and thousands were injured in the explosion that swept through the Lebanese capital. The explosion, with an orange mushroom cloud towering over the city, caused widespread damage to Beirut’s central and eastern districts, displacing about 300,000 people from their homes.
More than four months later, it remains unclear what triggered the material’s detonation, but government officials have said they have not ruled out sabotage.
“Everything that happens is suspicious,” Diab told CNN. “There is something that is inexplicable, the timing of this, what is happening.”
He has denied the charges, saying he was singled out despite the fact that the explosive material had been in port for about six years before taking office.
You have to ask the questions: Who brought the ship? Whose is it? Who paid for it? Who was silent about it for seven years? ‘ Diab said.
Since the ammonium nitrate arrived in Beirut, Lebanon has had four prime ministers, including current prime minister-candidate Saad Hariri, who has denounced the charges against Diab.
Diab – who had already filed a voluntary affidavit – refused to be questioned by the judge conducting the investigation, saying it lacks a constitutional basis.
The investigation was suspended after two of the ex-ministers charged with demand that the judge be removed from the case.
The documents sent to the Ministry of Public Works before the explosion indicated the possibility that the explosive material could be stolen; they warn of a broken door in the warehouse where the deadly material was stored, and reveal that there was hardly any security.
A Lebanese intelligence official told CNN that 1,300 tons of ammonium nitrate had disappeared from the warehouse before the explosion.
Diab’s government, which will be replaced with the formation of a new cabinet, has repeatedly acknowledged that it had received advance warnings about the dangers of storing the explosive material in the port.
Previous governments were also informed about the warehouse, but no one has addressed the issue.
‘No regrets’
Diab has repeatedly accused Lebanon’s ruling elite of ‘besieging’ his government and overthrowing its plans to carry out a series of economic and political reforms.
He took power in January 2020, months after a popular uprising engulfed the country, and as the crisis-ridden country neared financial collapse.
A technocrat and professor at the American University of Beirut, Diab has led a largely technocratic government ushered in by a Hezbollah-backed parliamentary majority.
But through his tenure, the country’s coin tank, the coronavirus pandemic, has set in, increased poverty and devastated the port of Beirut.
Diab says his government was “an opportunity for Lebanon to recover some of its economic, social and financial losses.”
“With the support of political parties, with the support of the Gulf (countries), with the support of Europeans and Americans, we would have made a big, huge difference and we were not provoking anyone,” he said.
“In a country like Lebanon… you need consensus, and you also need support from the international community and the Gulf.