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The Lebanese government would likely be on the brink of collapse amid protests opposed to the explosion of the great port that devastated much of Beirut and killed at least two hundred other people and wounded thousands. At least four ministers and nine deputies resigned. “Dominoes are falling,” says Dion Nissenbaum, a Beirut-based Wall Street Journal reporter who conducted an investigation into the official negligence that preceded last week’s explosion, and said he intensified public outrage over the government’s long-standing dysfunction. calling it “the drop that filled the glass here.”
AMY GOODMAN: Several resources report that the Lebanese government is on the brink of collapse amid protests opposed to last week’s big explosion that devastated much of Beirut and killed at least two hundred people, injuring thousands of people. Dozens remain missing, many of them foreign workers. The explosion was triggered by 2,700 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate that was left unattended in a port warehouse for more than six years.
To date, at least 3 ministers and nine deputies have resigned, joining the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Information and the Minister of the Environment. Prime Minister Hassan Diab said Saturday that the only solution is the holding of early elections. While we broadcast, some media outlets report that Diab will soon submit his resignation. Protesters also called for a demonstration calling for the removal of President Michel Aoun. Al Jazeera reports that a Lebanese trial has begun to ask the heads of the country’s security agencies about the explosion.
This comes after thousands of protesters in Beirut broke into government establishments and clashed with security forces over the weekend and placed symbolic ropes on Beirut’s martyrs to hang politicians whose corruption and neglect, they say, are to blame for the explosion, as well as that of Lebanon. . deep economic crisis.
PROTESTER 1: [translated] Our first reaction after the explosion that we seek to leave blank, to help those affected. We cleaned blank on the first day, the day of the moment, the third day. And then that’s it. We’re looking to make our voices heard. What happened is nothing new; has been the case for years. This is unacceptable. This has to stop.
PROTESTER 2: And then, yesterday, as soon as we arrived, we were gassed. There were sound bombs. There were real bullets. Nothing I expected from a country that has already lost so much.
AMY GOODMAN: International leaders have pledged at least $300 million in humanitarian aid to be delivered to the Lebanese people.
In a minute, we will be joined by Wall Street Journal journalist Dion Nissenbaum, who is in Beirut. He videotaped Saturday’s explosion hours before the protests broke out and filmed the hounds wondering about the prime minister.
EMMA MURPHY: But are you going to go onto the streets today or this weekend and speak to people about the tragedy?
PRIME MINISTER HASSAN DIAB: I don’t know when I faint in the street, but I’m part of the village.
EMMA MURPHY: Are you afraid of people’s anger?
PRIME MINISTER HASSAN DIAB: I’m afraid of people’s fury, but of course I …
EMMA MURPHY: But do they have to be angry?
PRIME MINISTER HASSAN DIAB: Absolutely, you have the right to be angry and angry, not just for that. It’s probably diabolical what happened. But, however, they are also furious even before those 3 decades of incredible corruption.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Lebanon’s Prime Minister Diab, speaking at the blast site.
To be more informed, we are joined in Beirut, Lebanon, through Wall Street Journal journalist Dion Nissenbaum, who co-wrote his research entitled “Behind the Beirut Explosion: Seven Years of Official Negligence.” Dion’s daughter, 4-year-old Iman, was injured in the explosion. We spoke to his wife, Dr. Seema Jilani, last week, the day after the explosion.
Dion, welcome to Democracy Now! As we speak, is it true that the Lebanese are falling?
DION NISSENBAUM: That’s right. Between the time his press release began and now, a fourth minister, the Minister of Finance, announced his resignation. Then the dominoes fall. It turns out that the prime minister does not dare resign, but if they resign enough ministers, it will be an interim government in one way or another.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain what happened this weekend, those massive protests. Speaking of a very battered population, I mean, you are already suffering with the pandemic – you see all those masked protesters on the streets – and then last week last Tuesday, that big explosion that shook and wiped out part of the capital, Beirut. kill — now the number is what? Two hundred. More than 5,000 more people were injured.
DION NISSENBAUM: Yes. You know, one thing you shouldn’t forget about this government is that it’s meant to be a technocratic government. He settled after last fall’s joyous, nonviolent anti-corruption protests that overthrew former Prime Minister Saad Hariri. So it was a government that intended to intervene and solve problems, and not be too tied to the politicians who have ruled this country for decades. And there was distrust when they started, that they weren’t going to be able to do that.
And as you’ve just described all the problems, there’s hyperinflation. The coin has collapsed. People can’t buy commodities. Power outages here last up to 22 hours a day. That was it before the explosion. And then this tragedy happens in this beautiful city, and other people first think, you know, it’s going to have to be Israel, it’s going to have to be a component of a war. And when other people discover that this turns out to be the result of government negligence, we still have to, of course, find out what was the cause of that, but the fact that they’ve stored all that ammonium nitrate in this warehouse for years, knowing it was a barrel of gunpowder, it’s just the drop that filled the glass here , and others no longer have any confidence in this government. They’re on the street. People are disappointed, disenchanted and, you know, they’re going to come back for some kind of replacement.
AMY GOODMAN: Dion, you traced the origin of this shipment. Just tell us, very quickly, before you get into the mass protests and what you saw on the streets, what other people are asking for, what happened in 2013. Talk about this shipment that arrived and why you ended up with this large amount of ammonium nitrate. I mean, only two tons destroyed the Oklahoma City building, killing 170 other people years ago. That’s 2, 700 tons.
DION NISSENBAUM: Yes. You know, there’s a lot of questions we haven’t answered about this boat. But we know, it came from Georgia. I intended to move to Mozambique. It’s the lyrics. He stopped in Beirut. And
AMY GOODMAN: This is Georgia, the former of the Soviet bloc.
DION NISSENBAUM: Yes, yes. No…
AMY GOODMAN: Yes.
DION NISSENBAUM: Yes, yes, of course. And he stopped in Lebanon. A series of bureaucratic and monetary unrest was raised. I was there to check and load a little more shipping to help pay your way south. And then it was considered too damaging to the weight. And then, basically, he took position at the port, and the team stayed on board and said, “We’re sitting in a powder room.” And then they delivered him stuck in those bureaucratic galleys for years. It was finally unloaded in warehouses. The shipment itself sank.
AMY GOODMAN: So, were you held in this submission for what? About 11 months, before they were …
DION NISSENBAUM: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: And they themselves said they were sitting in a powder keg?
DION NISSENBAUM: That’s right. They would put up posters and send them and say, “We have to get out of here. You know, we’re basically sitting on a time bomb.”
AMY GOODMAN: And the shipment bound for Mozambique?
DION NISSENBAUM: You know, those are questions I’m going to have to tell you that we’re looking for answers. That’s what he said at the time. We have reports from others in Mozambique who say they had no indication that he intended to do so. An investigation is ongoing. We’re investigating. Journalists around the world are investigating what was going on: where he was going, why he was there, what other people intended to use it for, why they never got rid of it. But, you know, there are more questions than answers at this point on this ship.
AMY GOODMAN: They have this volatile substance held in the port of Beirut. How many other people knew that? Early after Tuesday, they said they had arrested the harbor guards, who were guilty of what? I mean, they can’t be accused of protecting him.
DION NISSENBAUM: They arrested 19 other people, adding those who run the port. You know, they’re probably becoming scapegoats. You know, the government official passed at the highest point on this for years. It wasn’t a hidden secret. Port officials have tried several times with the courts to verify it for auction or sale in one way or another. He’s been caught up in this legal fight for years. They are said to go to the wrong court to ask for that, and the court kept saying, “It’s not us who can approve that.” But they continued to ask the same court over and over again. So we don’t know why these other people asked this court, it wasn’t the right forum to request it. But everyone knew it was there. And like I said, it’s a tragedy of mistakes that never moved him, that they never acted on it for more than six years, as you said.
AMY GOODMAN: Then tell the stage of this demonstration – you were there before the protesters were accumulating – about the prime minister’s interrogation and then what the protesters are demanding. I mean, the day after the explosion, French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Beirut. In the end, tear fuel: the protesters were fed French tear fuel, right?
DION NISSENBAUM: I don’t know where the tear fuel came from, but in fact there was a lot of anger against the Prime Minister for not coming before the French president, the French Prime Minister, went ahead. There’s a lot of genuine anger on the streets. And the Prime Minister is now seen as a useless leader. I don’t know how you’re going to get me to conduct an effective investigation of everything that’s going on right now.
When I was at the blast site, there was no sign of actual investigation going on. All you had was divers searching for bodies. All you had was dogs searching for bodies. They’re picking up the grain and the corn, leaving the country devastated, on the verge of a humanitarian disaster. You know, it’s tragedy upon tragedy here. And the fact that the president of France was the one to come here and go out on the streets and meet the people, before the prime minister of Lebanon, really sort of drove home the point for a lot of people that this is not a government of the people.
AMY GOODMAN: What about your demands? And you were recording while the Prime Minister of Lebanon was questioned through journalists. But the demands of protesters on the streets? And will these protests continue even after the fall of the existing government? Finally, what does it look like?
DION NISSENBAUM: Yes. So what happens when this government falls is that it becomes interim until it can put a new interim government in place, and then negotiations resume to determine who will be the component of the new interim government. And the last time they did, they ended up with this government, which didn’t have the trust of the people.
So there will be ongoing protests over effective government. And it already has intense tension from Paris and Washington for the new government to review to distance itself from Hezbollah, the militant and political organization here that has significant strength and is allied with Iran. It therefore faces a number of tensions in Lebanon from various points. The United States and France check the exit to put pressure on their program. There are other people on the streets looking for formula adjustments to the sectarian political formula here and the corrupt formula here that created this layer after layer of disorders for this counterattack. For many of us here, it’s hard to see short-term things for Lebanon.
AMY GOODMAN: Dion, I sought to end up asking how Iman, his 4-year-old daughter, is doing. We spoke to his wife, Dr. Seema Jilani, last week, right after the explosion. You just took her to the hospital. Talk about what happened to Iman and how he is now.
DION NISSENBAUM: Thank you. Thanks for asking. Yes, she was the most seriously injured of the three in the explosion. I tried to protect her with my frame when the glass and wood passed through our apartment and Threw me over it. We were able to get her down in an ambulance. And he’s got the pictures of my wife singing her a lullaby in the ambulance while we were trying to get to the hospital. The doctors were doing an amazing task in a wonderful loss scenario. I take my hat off to all the fitness professionals who have dealt with this scenario in the city.
Iman was able to leave the hospital after about a day, with lacerations. He has wounds to his arm, legs and abdomen. She’s out of the hospital. He lims with both feet. She’s a very brave girl. And, you know, she’s looking at a lot of time on screen those days while we’re looking to turn the page. He told us that over the weekend, he said, “Maybe we’ll just move somewhere where there are no explosions?
AMY GOODMAN: We’re popping up a video of her walking very slowly. And the hospitals, Dion, I mean, that have been so affected by the COVID virus anyway (you just took Iman to a hospital before it closes) and now you’re facing thousands and thousands of people injured in this explosion?
DION NISSENBAUM: Yes, and the coronavirus, of course, is a major challenge here. Several hospitals here also lost all their windows as a result of the explosion. Some of them had to close. The hospital we were in has been attacked and they’re still working. The restrictions on the formula here are only increasing. Doctors, nurses and medical groups do an amazing job. There are aid groups on the streets that treat other people in tents, sew other people in ruins. So they’re heroes here. And if there’s one aspect, it’s in the other people, medical groups and volunteers who are on the streets here to help rebuild the country.
AMY GOODMAN: Dion Nissenbaum, I need to thank you for being with us, a Beirut-based Wall Street Journal reporter, co-author of the “Behind the Beirut Explosion: Seven Years of Official Negligence” survey. His 4-year-old daughter Iman was injured in the explosion.
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