BEIRUT: Arab League Chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Saturday he would seek to mobilise Arab efforts to provide support to Lebanon after this week’s catastrophic explosion in Beirut destroyed parts of the capital.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, he also said the Cairo-based league of Arab states was ready to assist the investigation into the blast.
“We are ready to help with all our means,” he said, adding that he would take part in an international conference call to be organised by France on Sunday to discuss aid for Lebanon.
Also speaking after meeting Aoun, Turkish Vice-President Fuat Oktay said his country is ready to help rebuild the port.
Turkey’s Mersin port, on the Mediterreanean, is ready to help Lebanon with customs clearance and warehousing services of large shipments until Beirut Port is reconstructed, he added.
“We have said the goods could be transported with smaller ships and other means of transportation from Mersin to Lebanon,” he said.
The explosion killed more than 150 people, injured 5,000 and left up to 250,000 without habitable homes. The blast occurred at a port warehouse containing 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, used in fertilisers and explosives.
Oktay also said in a speech that Turkish air ambulances could transport injured Lebanese to Turkey for treatment. Turkish authorities have sent a medical team and supplies as well as a search and rescue team.
The disaster struck as Lebanon is struggling with a deep economic crisis.
Oil-rich Gulf Arab states, which have long channelled funds into Lebanon’s fragile economy, had refrained this time from providing financial assistance, alarmed by the rising influence of Hezbollah, a powerful group backed by their arch-rival Iran.
“The recent, dangerous, painful events prove that there is no alternative (for Lebanon) to preserving the bridges with the Arab environment,” the Emirati minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, said on Twitter.
As Beirut mourns its dead and grapples with the scale of rebuilding after this week’s massive blast, some Lebanese activists planned to demonstrate in the city, angered by the government’s response to the disaster.
Some residents, struggling to clean up shattered homes, complain the state they see as corrupt – there had been months of protests against the government’s handling of a deep economic crisis before this week’s disaster – has let them down again.
“The people are doing your work, shame,” someone wrote on the dust covering a car window, referring to Lebanese leaders.
President Aoun said on Friday an investigation would also examine whether it was caused by a bomb or other external interference. Aoun said the investigation would also weigh if the blast was due to negligence or an accident. Twenty people had been detained so far, he added.
Some residents wondered how they would ever rebuild their lives.
Tearing up, Bilal Hassan used his bare hands to try to remove debris from his home located a few hundred metres from where the port blast hit. He has been sleeping on a dusty couch besides pieces of splintered glass.
When his three wounded teenage children ran for their lives they left blood stains on the staircase and walls.
“There is really nothing we can do. We can’t afford to rebuild and no one is helping us,” he said, standing beside a large teddy bear that was blown across his home, and a damaged photograph of him and his wife.
Bulldozers ploughed through the wreckage of mangled homes and long rows of flattened cars as soldiers stood by. Volunteers with shovels streamed through streets.
Danielle Chemaly said her charity organisation, whose headquarters was destroyed, had provided assistance to 70 families who were left homeless by the explosion.
“We have given people initial help but we don’t know what we can do for families in the future. It requires major projects,” she said.
Officials have said the blast could have caused losses amounting to US$15 bil (RM62.8 bil). That is a bill that Lebanon cannot pay after already defaulting on a mountain of debt – exceeding 150% of economic output – and with talks stalled on a lifeline from the International Monetary Fund.
France and other countries have rushed emergency aid to Lebanon, including doctors, and tons of health equipment and food. The blast destroyed Lebanon’s only major grain silo and UN agencies are helping provide emergency food and medical aid.
US President Donald Trump said he would join a conference call with Lebanon’s president and other world leaders on Sunday to discuss aid to the country.
For ordinary Lebanese, the scale of destruction is overwhelming.
“It felt like a mini atomic bomb,” said George Rohana, sitting beside a supermarket that was demolished.
A few onions were left in the debris of the blast that tore a huge hole through the shop into an adjacent apartment.
“Now we have a situation where people are stealing metals and other items from the destruction,” said Rohana. “The other day someone walked away with a broken toaster.” – Aug 8, 2020, Reuters
