BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday that his group would wait for results of an investigation into the Beirut port explosion, but if it turns out to be a sabotage operation by Israel, it would “pay an equal price”.
The leader of the powerful Iran-backed Shi’ite Muslim group said in a televised speech that the two theories being investigated that an accident was caused by negligence, such as sabotage, caused the explosion of stored ammonium nitrate.
Israel denied any involvement in the August 4 explosion that killed 172 people, injured 6,000, damaged the city and left 300,000 homeless.
The Lebanese president said investigators were looking for negligence, an accident or “external interference”.
Nasrallah said that among sabotage opportunities there was a deliberate fire like planting a small bomb.
‘Who could be behind an act of sabotage? “It could be this way, and it could be Israel that no one can refuse,” he said.
Hezbollah waited for the results of the Lebanese probe and if it found “this was a terrorist sabotage operation, and that Israel had a role, not only Hezbollah will respond. The entire Lebanese state … must respond,” he said. Israel will pay the price for the magnitude of the crime if it commits it. ”
Hezbollah, which exercises control over the government in Lebanon, has fought many wars with Israel.
Lebanon’s prosecutor general has indicted prosecutors against 25 people, including seniors for port and customs, a judicial source said on Friday.
Nasrallah speaks shortly after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said in Beirut that the international community should help Lebanon instead of imposing his will on the country.
“It is not human to use the pain and suffering of the people for political purposes,” Zarif said, adding that Lebanon must decide on its future.
International humanitarian aid has come in, but foreign states have linked financial aid to Lebanese state reform, which has failed their huge sovereign debt.
Iran is seen as a major player in Lebanon by the support, armament and funding of Hezbollah, founded by the Revolutionary Guards in 1982. The movement is classified by the United States as a terrorist group.
The role of Iran has in recent years been caused by US allied Arab states of the Gulf to provide Lebanon with financial support.
Zarif met with President Michel Aoun, who also met with US and French officials on Friday in a diplomatic drive aimed at encouraging Lebanon to fight corruption and long-term reforms to unlock foreign financial aid to the least. to solve economic crisis in its history.
Visit by U.S. Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale said Lebanon needs to eradicate corruption, introduce financial reform, establish state control over ports and borders, and revamp the power sector.
French Defense Minister Florence Parly called for the formation of a government that can make “courageous decisions”.
Lebanese have vicious protests against their leaders, who are to blame for Lebanon’s plight, even before the blast, which has blamed officials for more than 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored for years without security measures.
The explosion sharpened anger at the authorities.
‘We can not live like this. The West must put pressure on our leaders to save us, “said Iyaam Ghanem, a Beirut pharmacist.
Victims and their representatives told reporters that only an independent probe would provide justice, and call on the UN Security Council for an international inquiry.
“Is it acceptable for people to find their homes destroyed, their families murdered, their hopes and dreams murdered, without justice?” asked Paul Najjar, whose three-year-old daughter Alexandra died in the blast.
Report by Ellen Francis, Laila Bassam and Ghaida Ghantous; Written by Samia Nakhoul; edited by Grant McCool
.
