The resignation of Lebanon’s government deepened political uncertainty as Beirut yesterday marked one week since the deadly port explosion rocked the capital and shook the nation to its core.
The blast, the country’s worst peacetime tragedy, which killed at least 160 people and wounded more than 6,000, is widely blamed on state negligence and has ignited unprecedented popular rage against the ruling class.
Under pressure from all sides, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Monday night announced his government’s resignation, even as protesters clashed with riot police near his office for a third consecutive evening of street violence.
Photo: Reuters
In his speech, the 61-year-old sought to cast himself as a champion of the struggle against a cartel of corrupt political overlords, despite the fact that many Lebanese have long regarded him as their puppet rather than a victim.
As the shattered and traumatized capital city licked its wounds, its streets still filled with the sound of broken glass being swept away, people welcomed news of the Cabinet’s resignation with mixed feelings.
Some saw it as a victory for the protest movement that already forced out the previous government last year. Others warned that, given the power of Lebanon’s factions and family clans, the same old faces may be back before too long.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“It’s a long fight that won’t end in a month or two,” said Hussein El Achi, an activist and lawyer defending the resurgent protest camp.
Some observers argue that the massive extra burden and the deep popular anger over the tragedy will reduce the room for maneuver of Lebanon’s politicians, who also face pressure to agree as a condition for foreign assistance.
“They will find it very difficult to avoid the kind of structural reforms that the international community has made a precondition for any aid,” said Bassel Salloukh, a political science professor at the Lebanese American University.
Photo: Bloomberg
For now Diab’s team is to continue in a caretaker capacity, as Lebanon faces some of its darkest hours, but negotiations were under way for a successor.
The Al-Akhbar daily said that veteran diplomat Nawaf Salam is favored by Paris, Washington and Riyadh, as well as Tehran.
The 66-year-old Salam was Lebanon’s ambassador to the UN for a decade before serving a term as a judge on the UN-backed International Court of Justice.
In the blast zone, the increasingly hopeless search for survivors continued yesterday. Close to 20 people are still missing, including firefighters who were sent to the fire that preceded the explosion.
Foreign and Lebanese teams have been camping at “ground zero” to organize the rescue effort and to restore temporary port infrastructure.
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