Lebanon’s prime minister and his cabinet have resigned over the devastating Beirut explosion which has killed more than 160 people.
The Prime Minister, Hassan Diab told the nation in a televised address that “Today we are heeding the people and their demands to hold accountable those responsible for a disaster.”
He blamed a ‘corrupt’ political class that has ruled Lebanon for more than 30 years for the August 4 explosion. ‘This is why today I announce the resignation of the government,’ Diab said.
According to Daily Mail reports, several ministers had earlier quit the cabinet amid fury over the blast and the Hezbollah-backed President Michel Aoun – who has rejected calls for an international probe into the disaster – is also facing calls to quit.
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It said the resignations do not force Aoun to step down but they will cause a legislative paralysis in Lebanon’s French-inspired system.
At least 163 people were killed in last Tuesday’s disaster – caused by more than 2,000 tonnes of highly explosive ammonium nitrate which were piled up in a warehouse while hundreds of thousands were left homeless.
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Many in Lebanon see the blast as a symbol of corruption and incompetence among the country’s elite, and protests have broken out with tear gas fired on protesters after months of political and economic meltdown.
Much of the fury is directed at the political elite which is backed by Hezbollah, in turn backed by Iran which has called for outside countries to refrain from ‘politicising’ the disaster.
Diab’s cabinet, which was formed in January with the backing of the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah, met on Monday with many ministers wanting to resign.
During the session, ‘most of the ministers called on the government to step down,’ Sport and Youth Minister Vartine Ohanian said. Another minister said Diab ‘is heading towards resignation’.
Health minister Hasan added that Diab would head to the presidential palace to ‘hand over the resignation in the name of all the ministers’.
The information and environment ministers quit on Sunday as well as several lawmakers, and the justice minister followed them out on Monday.
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Finance minister Ghazi Wazni, a key negotiator with the IMF over a rescue plan, is believed to have gone to the cabinet meeting with a resignation letter.
Lebanon is already seeking $20billion in funding from the IMF and now faces billions more in disaster costs, with losses from the explosion estimated to be between $10billion and $15billion.
At least nine lawmakers have also announced they would quit in protest, as have two senior members of the Beirut local government.
Lebanon’s system is modelled on that of former colonial power France, where the president appoints the prime minister and is not required to resign along with the cabinet.
However, Aoun is also under pressure to quit and his portrait was burned by demonstrators who burst into the foreign ministry building during angry protests at the weekend.
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