Prime Minister Hassan Diab. - AFP / DALATI AND NOHRA

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced on Monday the resignation of his cabinet, after the successive resignations of members of his team under the blow of the explosion which left at least 160 dead, more than 6,000 injured and destroyed part of Beirut .

Hassan Diab had been head of government for almost seven months. Four members of his team have already resigned since Sunday, following the terrible explosion of August 4 due to a huge deposit of ammonium nitrate. Almost a week after the tragedy, the demonstrations against the authorities accused of corruption, negligence and incompetence by the street, did not weaken. 

President rejects international investigation

It was a fire in the warehouse where 2,750 tons of nitrate had been stored for six years without "precautionary measures" by the admission of Prime Minister Hassan Diab, which caused the devastating explosion on Tuesday. The increasingly contested President Michel Aoun has rejected an international investigation. And the authorities have not communicated on the progress of the local investigation.

Faced with the scale of the tragedy and the anger of a weary population, the Minister of Finance Ghazi Wazni announced his resignation while the government was meeting. Before him, the Minister of Justice Marie-Claude Najm, the Minister of Information Manal Abdel Samad and the Minister of the Environment Damianos Kattar tendered their resignations.

According to the Constitution, the government falls if more than a third of its members resign. Hassan Diab's cabinet was formed in January after Saad Hariri's resignation under pressure from an unprecedented popular protest movement. On Saturday, Hassan Diab said he was ready to stay in office for two months, until early elections were held in a country dominated by the armed movement of Hezbollah, an ally of Iran and the regime. of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

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  • Explosion
  • Beirut
  • Government
  • World
  • Lebanon