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BEIRUT – Lebanon’s acting prime minister’s office backtracked on Wednesday a day after quoting him as saying that an FBI report found that 500 tons of fertilizer caused the devastating Beirut port explosion.
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Hassan Diab, who resigned in the wake of the Aug. 4 explosion that killed more than 200 people, said last summer that more than 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had been randomly stored in a port warehouse for years.
According to his office, the outgoing prime minister told reporters on Tuesday that a report from the US national intelligence agency showed that less than a quarter of that amount had exploded.
But it issued a clarification on Wednesday.
“Prime Minister Diab was relying on unofficial information attributed to the FBI,” his office said.
“Diab has not received an official report on this matter from the FBI.”
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One of his advisers told AFP that he was referring to press reports.
AFP was unable to independently verify the content of the FBI report.
The US agency declined to comment, referring to its August statement that “further questions should be directed to the Lebanese authorities as lead investigators.”
After the port explosion, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, experts quickly concluded that the amount of fertilizer that exploded was likely less than the 2,700 tons initially stored on the docks.
The chief investigating judge, Fadi Sawan, this month accused Diab and three former ministers of “negligence and caused the death of hundreds and injuries to thousands more” by the explosion in the first round of indictments against politicians.
But the investigation into the blast has since been suspended after two of the accused ministers called for Sawan to be replaced. The highest Lebanese Court of Cassation must rule on your application before the investigations continue.
