Beirut Explosion

Lebanon is reeling from a blast that destroyed much of the capital Beirut on Tuesday, August 4. 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate in the city’s port is thought to have caught fire and exploded, killing at least 157 people and injuring thousands more. The blast, believed to be one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, destroyed much of the city and has left an estimated 300,000 people homeless.

Exploiting this tragedy are the usual suspects within Western media and government including the United States and Israel who are beating the drums of war as they try to blame Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah for the massive explosion.

Joining us today to discuss this and what this means for the region and world are two independent journalists and analysts who lived through the blast, Laith Marouf, and Marwa Osman.

Laith Marouf is a journalist, geopolitical analyst, and activist who has served as Canadian National Chair of the group, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights. He was the Executive Director of Concordia University Television in Montreal and currently lives in Beirut where he saw first hand the devastation caused by the August 4 explosion.

Marwa Osman is a lecturer at the Lebanese International University and Maaref University. She’s also the host of the MidEaStream broadcasted on Al-Etejah English Channel. Her writing focuses primarily on Middle Eastern issues and can be found in a wide range of outlets, including Press TV. Like Marouf, Osman is a resident of Beirut.

 

Global News

A diver in the port of Beirut captured the massive August 4 explosion from the vantage point of the water. Alaa Saad told Storyful he was sitting on a boat with his friends after diving when they noticed smoke rising from the port. It was minutes before the massive explosion hit the capital, killing at least 220 people and injuring more than 6,000. “As soon as I saw the explosion, I never thought it would be one that’d destroy Beirut. I thought it was a show or a festival because I had never imagined that this kind of explosion would occur in my city,” Saad said.
 
Hello, I am translating a text taken over by sign of time in French, I will translate it for you and very close to what I know and read

Sometimes the information cycle and the geopolitical cycle simply separate. This is the case here, with the devastation of the port of Beirut. What happened there is destined to be a major geopolitical event - however its aftermath is expected to reverberate and shape the future.
There are good historical reasons for this separation: The first (which explains the regional silence) is that we have not yet had the results of the forensic science. Yes, satellite photos abound, but terrain detail is not. Not forensics.

The mainstream media are in a hurry to "shape" their story of the explosion before the verdict of the Special Tribunal on the death of Rafic Hariri (scheduled for August 18), and which is expected to indict Hezbollah members. Yet many questions remain unanswered. It will take a few more days before these analyzes on the site are available. They will of course be contested, and may not resolve anything.

Faced with this silence, while awaiting the opinion of the main actors, the Western and Israeli media are making the headlines by publishing "everything you need to know" and their "recaps" from Beirut. However, the situation is far from being resolved. Other questions arise over the days. And the region has a collective memory of these geopolitical inflection points.

The "popular" uprising of 1953 against Prime Minister Mossadegh, which turned out to be an MI6 / CIA coup and which - subsequently - was to usher in the game-changing Iranian Revolution; the assassination of Rafic Hariri in 2005, which led Syria to leave Lebanon - and the fact that calls (of unknown content) made by cell phone "families" were made through poorly performing computers - were institutionalized to determine the guilt of Hezbollah and, at the same time, the designation of the movement as terrorist. (Hezbollah has, from the start, contested the Western / international narrative of Hariri's assassination).

Yet the truth is that what happened to Rafik Hariri still remains obscured in the fog of partisan warfare (as the fate of Beirut's devastation may be this week). In Syria, the history of chemical weapons for Douma became another "turning point", amid the roar of American Tomahawk missiles (Assad having become a chemical weapons pariah). Yet, OPCW documents from the last few days show that chemical weapons were just an invention.

Yes, the region has good reason to take a break. On the one hand, we did not have the results of the expertises on the explosion of the port, and on the other hand, we have Trump's assertion - which he subsequently reiterated - that his military generals said that what happened in Beirut was "an attack" (a bomb). The President did not "speculate" that this was an attack. He made it clear that his generals told him so.

This declaration cannot be entirely taken out of the calculation by airbrushing. And one also cannot ignore the fact that the oddly unified "shape" and mushroom effect of the main Beirut explosion looks like a similar "unexplained explosion" a few months ago in Syria. And finally, there is the question: Were there three explosions?

So we're waiting for what is likely to be a perfectly binary outcome. Either the devastation is the result of culpable neglect by port security authorities, or it is a daring attempt to "explode" current regional dynamics, reshape narratives and radically overhaul geopolitics. Both are possible.
What to do then? The Israeli narrative is that the destruction of Beirut will provoke an uprising of the Lebanese population against Hezbollah, and will demand that its ammunition be removed from population centers. (Israel would of course welcome the visibility this would bring to Hezbollah's arsenals). Scheduling an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting for Monday, and calls to place Lebanon under international surveillance, suggest that Western states will seek to use the crisis to weaken and further coerce Hezbollah.

The March 14 Alliance will seek to capitalize on what has happened to mobilize the Lebanese against Hezbollah, but this is unlikely to have the resonance that others might anticipate. The port of Beirut is historically a Sunni heritage. It does not have a unique security structure, and they are not Hezbollah's friends. The port is also open for inspection by UNIFIL. If we had to characterize the management of the installation, it would seem that it is a management of dilapidation and rampant venality. It is possible that this culpable negligence, which led to an accident, is responsible, in whole or in part, for what happened
If so, it would appear that the public anger is focused more on the corrupt Za'im (the system's "capos" who have ravaged the economic structure for their own enrichment for decades), than on Hezbollah. Indeed, the current government will struggle to survive - even if it was not in power when negligence may have occurred. This responsibility lies with the old guard.

If it turned out that "Trump" was telling the truth, and what happened was some kind of attack, it wouldn't be difficult to answer the question cui bono? Israeli journalists are already celebrating the auspicious timing of the event: that "Lebanon [now] will implode", and that the "shock waves" of the explosion will disturb Hezbollah for a long time to come, but especially before the report of the Special Tribunal.

An Israeli journalist added that the explosion "in Lebanon's main port sends a warning message to Iran as well, which said only about a month ago that it would deploy ships and tankers to Lebanon" . Israel and the United States in particular fear that these ships, if they arrive in Lebanon, will set up a regular supply line not only with oil, flour and medicine, but also weapons, ammunition and missile parts ”
Much therefore depends on forensics: Was this a bold “false flag” initiative to restore the strategic status quo (of the kind Israel once boasted about), by hiding and using a publicly known vulnerability in the Port of Beirut - the storage of 2,700 kg of ammonium nitrate - in order to destroy Hezbollah's strategic position in the region, and to move policy in an unexpected new direction (favorable to Israel)?

Or yet another example of the weariness and venality of the Lebanese elite, who only care about themselves and not the well-being of their people?

If the first example and events portend another attempt to crush Hezbollah, the new regional paradigm may well be explosive.

I remind you that Hariri father was killed, near the port on a bridge connecting the port and the airport of Beirut, during his career, he has repeatedly put many business people in ruins by his embezzlement. The investigation vilified by both the French authorities at the time and the Hariri government to hand this over to a puppet court, whose goal was to point out Hezbollah as sole responsible
 
WSJ writes: “The US sees the political atmosphere as a unique opportunity for the sanctions to prod Lebanon.” US sanctions are not a gentle “prod.” They’re more of a bludgeon on a country’s economy, aimed at bending its government to US will. 7:37 PM · Aug 13, 2020



The Beirut municipality faces the explosion of the port with a "shovel and shovel"! The Beirut municipality, with its "pick and shove", failed to mitigate the repercussions of the "catastrophe" of the port explosion on the Lebanese shoulders. Despite the size of the "calamity", the decision to allocate 30 billion pounds to support the victims of the capital remained a dead letter. #بيروت #بيروت_في_قلوبنا #بيروت_عم_تبكي
https://twitter.com/hashtag/بيروت?src=hashtag_click

Aug 15, 2020

 
Beirut Port Tragedy

Turning to the tragedy of Beirut Port, Sayyed Nasrallah indicated that Hezbollah doesn’t have any narrative on the Beirut Port explosion, “we’re not investigating, the Lebanese state is doing the job,” adding that, theoretically, there are two possibilities: even it was out of negligence or a sabotage act.

Addressing accusations that Hezbollah knew about the explosion out of its vast intelligence capabilities, Sayyed Nasrallah said it’s totally unrealistic. “Hezbollah is entitled only in resistance security; we don’t want or have capability to take over domestic security. So, we’re waiting outcome of investigation.”

Beirut Port blast


“If investigations proved the explosion was out of negligence, then those responsible must be held accountable and punished, Sayyed Nasrallah said.
“If ‘Israel’ was responsible for the explosion, then we’ll never know the truth had the FBI participated in the investigations,” he added, pointing out that if the investigation proves that ‘Israel’ was responsible, then it’s not just Hezbollah that must respond. “All of Lebanon, its institutions, its people, must respond, because this is an aggression against Lebanon.”

Hezbollah, Sayyed Nasrallah said, which cannot ignore the killing of one of its fighters, will not remain silent against ‘Israel’ if it committed this crime, and it will pay a similar price.

“The most dangerous matter is that there’s a project underway to bring down the Lebanese State. The scheme’s aim was to rile up political forces’ pressure against President [Michel] Aoun to force him to resign. The second goal targeted the parliament, through resignations, not constitutionally, or legally, but practically. This also failed,” the Hezbollah leader said.

“They are trying to take the country to civil war. They were trying to do that when former PM Saad Hariri was kidnapped,” he added.

Neutral Gov’t, Waste of Time

Regarding the formation of a new government, Sayyed Nasrallah urged the Lebanese not to give ear to those attempting to exploit the disaster to accomplish their political goals.

“We call for a strong government that has political backing from parliamentary factions, so it can withstand pressure,” His eminence said, adding that he opposes a neutral government, calling it a “waste of time.”

Instead, Sayyed Nasrallah called for the next PM to form a national unity government, saying “we do not believe in the existence of neutrals in Lebanon.” “If he can’t, then he should form a government with the broadest political, popular backing, and formed of politicians and technocrats.” A neutral government is a fake way to bypass the popular will, he said.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s government resigned Monday, following the catastrophic explosion that ripped through Lebanon’s capital.

 
"Texas" over in Donetsk shares his thoughts on the explosion. Highlights below. Summary: no exotic weaponry necessary, just a backpack full of explosives to detonate the store of AN:


Before I get into the facts of the explosion in Beirut, I'd like to mention that I served three years as a 12-B Combat Engineer, a demolition specialist, in the US Army, and I have been trained on, worked with, and detonated pretty much every non-nuclear explosive, including quite a bit of ammonium nitrate. I'm not saying I am an expert, but I can assure you I know more about explosives than any of these armchair experts who have never even thrown a hand grenade. So, let's get to it. ...

So, in fact the damage is actually precisely what could be expected from a detonation of 2,750 tons of AN. And while AN is considered a stable explosive, it does NOT require fuel oil to be added to make it explosive, and it can be set off in a chain reaction with a relatively small amount of Semtex, TNT, C-4 or dynamite. In fact a small backpack with 20 pounds of high explosive, placed correctly, would certainly be enough to detonate the entire warehouse of AN, which was haphazardly stored in 2,750 one ton bags. As you can see, they were stored close together, touching, in fact, which would allow for sympathetic detonation. Once one went, they all would go. Instantly.

He also debunks the "Hezbollah weapons depot" and "mini-nuke" claims, among others.
 
"Texas" over in Donetsk shares his thoughts on the explosion. Highlights below. Summary: no exotic weaponry necessary, just a backpack full of explosives to detonate the store of AN:

Was happy to see an article by Mr. Bentley over on SOTT today, and yes, 20 pounds of individual boosters sequenced together (msec) would likely do it, and a "sympathetic detonation," absolutely. Perhaps they, whoever, further specialized it in some way. The initiator (pre blast/blast) in the sequence stood apart in some way, and not sure what that was or where it came from.

Great article, though.
 
'Bibi admits that Israel is behind the Beirut explosion.'

29 Sep, 2020
Here’s where the next explosion will take place – right here,” Netanyahu said, as he directed his laser pointer at a large screen, showing the map of the Lebanese capital.
 
If that isn't a sign of the times I don't know what is. A tornado has hit Beirut almost pinpointing the epicenter of the explosion.



 
Back
Top Bottom