BEIRUT: Lebanon’s former army chief told the lead investigator of last year’s massive Beirut port blast on Thursday that he had recommended, years before the explosion, that tons of seized ammonium nitrate stored there be sold privately or sent back to importers.
The military had no use for the volatile chemical, testified Jean Kahwaji, who was army chief until 2017.
Kahwaji was summoned for questioning as a witness six months after the probe began, the first army official and the most senior security official to testify in the probe.
He told the lead investigator that the army had no use for the ammonium nitrate because it was a large amount and “has limited use and because it dissolves with time, it constitutes a danger if stored for a long time.”
Kahwaji said the army had no room to store it and no ability to get rid of it. He added the army then asked the customs authority to sell it to a private explosive company in Lebanon or to re-export to the country of origin at the expense of the importers.
According to a local media investigation, the importers had carried out their own tests of the nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, months after it was stored at the port, and then dropped any claims to the shipment. The chemicals ended up staying in the warehouse for six years before detonating. What sparked the explosion remains unknown.
The volatile fertilizer ignited last Aug. 4, causing one of the largest non-nuclear explosion in history, disfiguring Beirut and killing 211 people. More than 6,000 were injured in the explosion.
The shipment entered the port of Beirut in 2013 because of technical problems with the ship. It was then confiscated and stored in a warehouse in the port since 2014.
After the explosion, it was revealed that many of Lebanon’s political and security officials knew of the stored ammonium nitrate, and many of them had warned in internal communication of the dangers of keeping it in the port in hazardous conditions.
The army command, when Kahwaji was in charge, was one of the entities that exchanged letters with the customs department on what to do with the ammonium nitrate.
In April 2016, the army sent a letter to the Customs Authority with its recommendation.
On Thursday, Kahwaji told lead investigator Judge Fadi Sawwan the “army had carried out and continues to carry duties according to the law.” His statement as reported by his lawyer was carried by the National News Agency.
In December, Sawwan filed charges against caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers, accusing them of negligence leading to the deaths of hundreds of people.
The charges sparked a backlash and the former ministers challenged the judge’s authority in court, bringing the probe to a halt. But the country’s highest court asked Sawwan to resume his work.
The questioning of Kahwaji signaled the resumption of the probe, and is likely to ease public concerns that the investigation was derailed, given Lebanon’s decades-long culture of impunity and political interference in judicial matters.
Nearly 30 people, most of them port and customs officials, have been arrested since the blast.
Lebanese ex-army chief testifies in Beirut port blast probe
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Lebanese ex-army chief testifies in Beirut port blast probe
- Kahwaji is the first army official and the most senior security official to testify in the probe
- He told the lead investigator that he had recommended years before the blast that tons of seized ammonium nitrate be sold privately
Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government
- Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria’s ousted President Bashar Assad through years of war
- Syria’s new Islamist de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders
DUBAI: Lebanon said on Thursday it was looking forward to having the best neighborly relations with Syria, in its first official message to the new administration in Damascus.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib passed the message to his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani, in a phone call, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said on X.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria’s ousted President Bashar Assad through years of war, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war with Israel – a redeployment which weakened Syrian government lines.
Under Assad, Hezbollah used Syria to bring in weapons and other military equipment from Iran, through Iraq and Syria and into Lebanon. But on Dec. 6, anti-Assad fighters seized the border with Iraq and cut off that route, and two days later, Islamist militants captured the capital Damascus.
Syria’s new Islamist de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders after toppling Assad.
Iraqi intelligence chief discusses border security with new Syrian administration
BAGHDAD: An Iraqi delegation met with Syria’s new rulers in Damascus on Thursday, an Iraqi government spokesman said, the latest diplomatic outreach more than two weeks after the fall of Bashar Assad’s rule.
The delegation, led by Iraqi intelligence chief Hamid Al-Shatri, “met with the new Syrian administration,” government spokesman Bassem Al-Awadi told state media, adding that the parties discussed “the developments in the Syrian arena, and security and stability needs on the two countries’ shared border.”
Israeli minister’s Al-Aqsa mosque visit sparks condemnation
- Ben Gvir has repeatedly defied the Israeli government’s longstanding ban on Jewish prayer at the site in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem
JERUSALEM: Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Thursday, triggering angry reactions from the Palestinian Authority and Jordan accusing the far-right politician of a deliberate provocation.
Ben Gvir has repeatedly defied the Israeli government’s longstanding ban on Jewish prayer at the site in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, which is revered by both Muslims and Jews and has been a focal point of tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“I went up to the site of our temple this morning to pray for the peace of our soldiers, the swift return of all hostages and a total victory, God willing,” Ben Gvir said in a message on social media platform X, referring to the Gaza war and the dozens of Israeli captives held in the Palestinian territory.
He also posted a photo of himself on the holy site, with members of the Israeli security forces and the famed golden Dome of the Rock in the background.
The Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem’s Old City is Islam’s third-holiest site and a symbol of Palestinian national identity.
Known to Jews as the Temple Mount, it is also Judaism’s holiest place, revered as the site of the second temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
Under the status quo maintained by Israel, which has occupied east Jerusalem and its Old City since 1967, Jews and other non-Muslims are allowed to visit the compound during specified hours, but they are not permitted to pray there or display religious symbols.
Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as their future capital, while Israeli leaders have insisted that the entire city is their “undivided” capital.
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it “condemns” Ben Gvir’s latest visit, calling his prayer at the site a “provocation to millions of Palestinians and Muslims.”
Jordan, which administers the mosque compound, similarly condemned what its foreign ministry called Ben Gvir’s “provocative and unacceptable” actions.
The ministry’s statement decried a “violation of the historical and legal status quo.”
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a brief statement that “the status quo on the Temple Mount has not changed.”
UN force sounds alarm over Israeli ‘destruction’ in south Lebanon
- Under the ceasefire agreement, UNIFIL peacekeepers and the Lebanese army were to redeploy in south Lebanon, near the Israeli border, as Israeli forces withdrew over 60 days
BEIRUT: The United Nations’ peacekeeping force in Lebanon expressed concern on Thursday at the “continuing” damage done by Israeli forces in the country’s south despite a ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah.
The truce went into effect on November 27, about two months after Israel stepped up its bombing campaign and later sent troops into Lebanon following nearly a year of exchanges of cross-border fire initiated by Hezbollah over the war in Gaza.
The warring sides have since traded accusations of violating the truce.
Under the ceasefire agreement, UNIFIL peacekeepers and the Lebanese army were to redeploy in south Lebanon, near the Israeli border, as Israeli forces withdrew over 60 days.
UNIFIL said in a statement on Thursday that “there is concern at continuing destruction by the IDF (army) in residential areas, agricultural land and road networks in south Lebanon.”
The statement added that “this is in violation of Resolution 1701,” which was adopted by the UN Security Council and ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006.
The UN force also reiterated its call for “the timely withdrawal” of Israeli troops from Lebanon, and “the full implementation of Resolution 1701.”
The resolution states that Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon, where Hezbollah exerts control, and also calls for Israeli troops to withdraw from Lebanese territory.
“Any actions that risk the fragile cessation of hostilities must cease,” UNIFIL said.
On Monday the force had urged “accelerated progress” in the Israeli military’s withdrawal.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported on Thursday “extensive” operations by Israeli forces in the south.
It said residents of Qantara fled to a nearby village “following an incursion by Israeli enemy forces into their town.”
On Wednesday the NNA said Israeli aircraft struck the eastern Baalbek region, far from the border.
Syria forces carry out operation against pro-Assad ‘militias’: state media
- Operation had already succeeded in ‘neutralizing a certain number’ of armed men loyal to Assad
DUBAI: The new Syrian military administration announced on Thursday that it was launching a security operation in Tartous province, according to the Syrian state news agency.
The operation aims to maintain security in the region and target remnants of the Assad regime still operating in the area.
The announcement marks a significant move by the new administration as it consolidates its authority in the coastal province.
The operation had already succeeded in “neutralizing a certain number” of armed men loyal to toppled president Bashar Assad, state news agency SANA reported said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor has reported several arrests in connection with Wednesday’s clashes.
Further details about the scope or duration of the operation have not yet been disclosed.
