That such an explosive stockpile existed will likely see the US treasury and Israel tap Hezbollah, which they believe controls many of Beirut’s portsAs if the Lebanese haven’t suffered enough. For months, they have been caught between an economic meltdown, crumbling public services, and a surging pandemic. Now they must count the dead and survey the extensive damage to their capital after two giant explosions on Tuesday.
The equivalent of 2,000 Oklahoma City-sized bombs could indeed account for the devastation and the reddish mushroom cloud that over the Beirut port. But it doesn’t mean the Lebanese will simply accept that the explosion was an unavoidable, force majeure event. There are no prizes for guessing who in Lebanon might be interested in keeping such vast quantities of explosive material close at hand. The US treasury and Israel both believe Hezbollah controls many of Beirut’s port facilities.
Iran-backed Hezbollah, with its large and well-armed militia as well as its political hold on the prime minister, has nothing to fear from the state. But it will not escape public opprobrium: most Lebanese will assume the ammonium nitrate belonged to the militia, for use in Syria and against Israel. But suspicions of Hezbollah’s culpability will intensify on Friday when a UN special tribunal for Lebanon that has been looking into the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri is expected to issue verdicts in cases against four Hezbollah cadres being tried in absentia. The men are in hiding, and have not been seen in years; even if they are found guilty, no-one expects them to be handed over. Hariri, remember, was killed in a huge blast.
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