Beirut Port blast: Hezbollah one of many culprits

Islam Mohamed

Hezbollah’s involvement in the explosion that happened at Beirut Port earlier this month becomes clear day after day, even with continual denials by the secretary general of this Lebanese militia which is backed by Iran.

The blast has devastated almost half of the Lebanese capital and displaced thousands of people, not to mention those who were killed and injured.

Fingers of accusation have been pointed at Hezbollah since day 1 of the blast. This Lebanese militia controls the port by the force of arms.

The German weekly news magazine, Der Spiegel, conducted an investigation into the blast and found out that the owner of the ship that carried the explosive materials that caused the blast in the port had links with Hezbollah.

It also found out that the owner was a Cypriot national who tried to disguise the affiliations of his ship by registering it in Moldova. The ship was then leased to a Russian businessman who had a company registered in the Marshal Islands.

The ship anchored suddenly in Beirut Port with huge amounts of ammonium nitrate, even as it was supposed to ferry the same amount from Georgia to Mozambique. When it anchored in Beirut Port, the ship crew claimed that it did not have the transit fees of the Suez Canal in Egypt.

The captain said he was told the ship needed to collect an additional cargo of heavy machinery, to fund passage through the Suez Canal.

However, the machinery proved too heavy to load, and when the ship’s owner did not pay the port fees and fine, the Lebanese authorities impounded it, along with the ammonium nitrate.

However, Lebanese authorities did not know the real owner of the ship, even as he had links in Lebanon.

According to reports, parts of the shipment may have disappeared from the port before the blast took place on August 4.

Nobody actually knows where these amounts were taken, they said.