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Beirut – The Acting Lebanese Prime Minister, Hasan Diabrecently accused of the big explosion in Beirut on August 4, assured that Tuesday according to a report from Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that day “only” 500 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded and not nearly 3,000 as hitherto assumed.
“The FBI report found that the amount that exploded was only 500 tons, so where did the other 2,200 tons go?” The acting leader asked during a private meeting with the press, according to a transcript from your news agency.
Nearly three weeks after he was indicted, along with three former negligence ministers, by the judge investigating the tragedy that caused more than 200 deaths and 6,500 injuries, Diab gave a complicated version of the information he received about the explosion before the explosion. the hazardous material stored in the port of Beirut.
He added to this version the figure of 500 tons from a hitherto unpublished report by the US FBI, which participated in the investigation at the invitation of Lebanon.
Since the explosion, it has been claimed that the explosion was caused by nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate.
Diab said he received information from security forces on June 3, two months before the explosion, saying there was “2,000 kilograms of TNT in the port,” a warning that changed significantly over the next two hours.
The 2,000 kilograms became “2,500 tons” and the “TNT” became “nitrate,” a fertilizer that “we knew nothing about,” said the president, justifying why he did not go to the dockyard as soon as he received the news of the presence of it. material that would cause the tragedy.
Finally, according to his report, the version changed again to establish that the product had been in port for seven years, so the Prime Minister decided that the competent authorities should complete the investigation first and then send him a report, something that happened on the 22nd. from July.
“If I had felt that there was a threat around the port issue, I would have spoken immediately to the President of the Republic (Michel Aoun) and would not have covered this crime that took place in 2013,” the Prime Minister concluded shortly. resigned. after the tragedy and that he refused to cooperate with the law after being charged.
Aoun then admitted that he knew of the existence of a “large amount” of ammonium nitrate that had been stored in the port for two weeks before the fire broke out in a warehouse in this compound.
The explosion left approximately 300,000 people homeless and several neighborhoods razed to the ground.