The Times - UK (2020-08-06)

the times | Thursday August 6 2020 2GM 29

Wo r l d

the one that has symbolically sent a pall

over the country in recent years. Its

business is mired in corruption, and

trade depends on a complex mix of gov-

ernment subsidy and the artificial ex-

change rate, which has now collapsed.

The port is also in the hands of

Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia

allied to certain arms of Lebanon’s

security state. Hezbollah’s privileges

and Lebanon’s freedoms work as a

trade-off, one that is now collapsing.

Protests last year called for political

leaders of all sides, who keep this merry-

go-round of black money, international

politics and guns going, to stand down.

They did not, and the doctor at the hos-

pital, whose insistence on anonymity

was now understandable, drew the con-

clusion: “What you are seeing is a re-

flection of the decadence of the political

class. This explosive material was stored

in the port for six years. Negligence is

not the word, it was criminal negli-

gence. We have been screaming against

this for so many years but the political

class are too well entrenched.”

Leading article, page 27

T

he sequence of

events that led to

Beirut’s

devastating

explosion is of

immense importance to

Lebanon’s immediate

future (Richard Spencer

writes).

We can be fairly sure

that the official version is

to some extent correct.

There is no doubt that

2,700 tonnes of exploding

ammonium nitrate, as was

said to have been stored at

the port, could be

responsible for the blast

that shook the city. Two

questions remain,

however: why was it

there? And what was the

first explosion, which set

off the ammonium

nitrate?

The first has one easy

explanation:

incompetence. Sloth

operates at every level of

Lebanese decision-

making, in part caused by

sky and may tear apart the nation

Khabarovsk whose company, Teto

Shipping Ltd, was registered in the

Marshall Islands, in the Pacific Ocean.

Mr Grechushkin is said to be based

in Cyprus, a haven for Russian

businesses seeking low taxes and light

regulation. Former crew of the Rhosus

had complained on a sailors’ internet

forum in 2012 and 2013 about

“miserly” pay and the poor state of the

ship, which was built in 1986. “The ship

is knackered,” one sailor wrote,

pointing to problems with the engines,

fuel supply and ballast tanks. Others

said that there was no cold room to

store vegetables and the ship had only

one washing machine. The crew had

to sit on garden chairs in their cabins.

What caused the huge damage?

The initial explosion is likely to have

killed everyone in the immediate area

inside the port. A team of firefighters is

among those missing. A subsequent

blast wave, caught by those filming the

initial explosion, ripped up the hill from

the port and through the city,

shattering windows and blasting

through dwellings. Most of those

secondary injuries were caused by

flying glass and shrapnel hurled by the

blast.

The damage reached Beirut’s airport,

six miles away, while the explosion was

felt and heard as far away as Cyprus

and Damascus. Experts said that the

red clouds still hanging over Beirut

were likely to contain nitrogen dioxide

and ammonia gas, both of which are

highly toxic and could present a

serious health hazard to anyone

breathing it in.

Incompetence is behind this horror

the stasis that afflicts the

body politic: nobody

knows who is in charge.

That comes down to

sectarian power-sharing.

“We don’t have a

dictatorship like Syria,”

runs a frequent complaint.

“We have 18

dictatorships.” That is a

reference to the 18

recognised sects in

Lebanon, each of which

has carefully delineated

rights and responsibilities.

That leaves national

matters, such as who is

responsible for safety and

security in the port, in the

hands of the proverbial

committee that created

the camel. But there is

more than incompetence

at the port. The most

powerful of Lebanon’s

factions is Hezbollah,

reckoned by many, and

certainly Israel, to keep

weapons dumps across

Beirut, as well as to have

oversight over what comes

in and out of the country.

Tonnes of ammonium

nitrate is a useful addition

to anyone’s arsenal. That

leads to the second

question, the cause of the

first fire. The authorities

have not been

forthcoming.

A deliberate attack,

even by some faction or

enemy unaware of the

ammonium nitrate, would

change the outlook for

Lebanese, even regional,

peace and security. It

would be in nobody’s

interests to admit it now.

In the longer term,

perhaps, these two

questions are

overshadowed by a third

issue, which applies

whatever answers can be

found: the viability of the

state of Lebanon.

In a free market world,

its free-wheeling society

could make its own rules,

whatever the government

got up to, whatever insults

and threats the sectarian

leaders were exchanging.

Now, though, harsh

decisions have to be made:

about finances,

Hezbollah’s role in the

state, relations with the

US, the Gulf, Syria and

myriad geopolitical crises

that swirl around the

Middle East.

Will any, or all, of the

leaders have their billions

of dollars taken off them

to pay the country’s debts?

Will ordinary people

stand for their bank

accounts to be pillaged

instead — the solution

that seems to be under

way? Will some outside

trigger tip the country

into a military crisis to

match its political and

economic ones?

There can have been

few residents of Beirut

who, when the blast

ricocheted through their

homes, did not think that

the trigger had been fired.

There may be some relief

that the explosion is being

agreed to be an accident.

But is incompetence of

this grotesque and lethal

calibre any better?

Site of

explosion

BEIRUT

CENTRAL

DISTRICT

PORT OF

BEIRUT KARANTINA

JISR

GEITAWI

SODECO

Half mile

GEMMAYZEH

BACHOURA

BOURJABI

HAYDAR

Windows blown

out of buildings

Damage at Hotel

Dieu hospital

St George

hospital damaged

Shop fronts

shattered Badly damaged

buildings

Severe

damage

Grain

silos

Warehouses

destroyed

Façades stripped

from towers

I mile partially

collapsed building

One mile

51

How blast radius compares

Beirut

Centre Total destruction

Federal Building

Oklahoma City, US

April 19, 1995

Hiroshima

Japan

August 6, 1945

MOAB*

Nangarhar,

Afghanistan

13 April 2017

*Massive Ordnance Air Blast

2 mile Homes

damaged

SYRSYRIAIA

LEEBEBEBANOANOONN

CYYPRUSY

Mediterranean

Sea Beriut 50 m50 milesile

Nicosia

Blast heard

150 miles away

Analysis