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On Friday, September 18, 2020, the United States accused the Lebanese Hezbollah of establishing several “caches for storing ammonium nitrate” in various European countries, suggesting that Washington established a link between the Lebanese Shiite organization and the Beirut port explosion. caused by the storage of this material.
“Since 2012, Hezbollah has established caches to store ammonium nitrate throughout Europe, transporting first aid bags containing this substance,” said US State Department counterterrorism coordinator Nathan Sales.
Sales told a press conference Thursday that “this type of storage cache was found in several countries, including the UK, Greece, France, Italy and others.”
He also spoke about the transport of this substance through Belgium, Spain and Switzerland.
Sales confirmed that some of these stored materials had been “destroyed”.
“We have reason to believe that these activities are still continuing,” said the US counterterrorism coordinator, adding that Washington suspects such storage caches existed until at least 2018, “most likely in Greece, Italy and Spain.”
“As we all witnessed in the Beirut port explosion, ammonium nitrate is a very dangerous substance,” he said.
The Beirut port explosion on August 4 killed 191 people and destroyed parts of the capital.
Lebanese authorities confirmed that the massive explosion was caused by a shipment of ammonium nitrate, which had been stored in a terminal block for more than six years “without preventive measures”, after it was seized while being transported by a cargo ship that He left Georgia for Mozambique.
Ammonium nitrate is an odorless white salt that is used as a base material for many agricultural fertilizers.
It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion.
As for whether the United States is establishing a link between the explosion and Hezbollah, which Washington considers a terrorist organization, Sales did not give a direct answer, but did not rule out this hypothesis.
He said: “This is what we know: we know that Hizbullah has stored huge amounts of ammonium nitrate in Europe.”
“Therefore, the United States calls for a full, open, transparent and in-depth investigation into the Beirut bombing,” Sales said. “We hope to see your results quickly.”
