Tuesday, May 30, 2023
manilastandard.net
ADVERTISEMENT
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
manilastandard.net
No Result
View All Result
Home News Top Stories

Lebanon government to resign over blast fallout

AFPbyAFP
August 11, 2020, 8:00 am
in Top Stories
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Email

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab was expected to announce his government's resignation Monday amid popular outrage over the deadly Beirut port explosion that has reignited angry street protests. 

Lebanon PM to announce government resignation: minister
A man poses for a picture with a cardboard cut-out of Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab (L) and Lebanese Forces executive chairman Samir Geagea hung by Lebanese protesters in downtown Beirut on August 8, 2020, during a demonstration against a political leadership they blame for a monster explosion that killed more than 150 people and disfigured the capital Beirut. AFP

The under-fire cabinet, struggling to weather the political storm, met amid widespread demands for an end to an entrenched political system widely seen as inept, corrupt and dominated by sectarian interests and family dynasties.

During the session, "most of the ministers called on the government to step down," Sport and Youth Minister Vartine Ohanian told AFP, saying she backed such calls.

Diab, who was set to address the nation on television at 1630 GMT, "is heading towards resignation," said another minister who asked not to be named after four of his colleagues had already stepped down. 

According to the health ministry, at least 160 people were killed in Lebanon's worst peacetime disaster, 6,000 were wounded and about 20 remained missing.

Six days after the enormous chemical blast which wreaked destruction across swathes of the capital and was felt as far away as the island of Cyprus, residents and volunteers were still clearing the debris off the streets.

International rescue teams with sniffer dogs and specialised equipment remained at work at the disaster's charred "ground zero", where the search was now for bodies and not survivors.

The Lebanese want heads to roll over the tragedy and are asking how a massive stockpile of volatile ammonium nitrate, a compound used primarily as a fertiliser, was left unsecured at the port for years.

The country's top officials have promised a swift and thorough investigation — but they have stopped short of agreeing to an independent probe led by foreign experts as demanded by the protesters.

Resignations

Four ministers had already decided they could no longer stand with a government that has shown little willingness to take the blame or to put state resources at the service of the victims.

The contagion looked set to spread, leaving Diab, who only accepted the top job in December last year, no option but to follow suit and agree to a full cabinet resignation.

At least nine lawmakers have also announced they would quit in protest, as have two senior members of the Beirut municipality.

The August 4 blast, which drew comparisons with the Hiroshima atom bomb, was so enormous that it altered the shape of not only Beirut's skyline but even its Mediterranean coastline.

But it remained to be seen whether the disaster will also have a lasting impact on Lebanon's entrenched post-war political culture, whose masters are widely seen as being primarily bent on self-preservation and buck-passing.

During a second evening of protests on Sunday, the rage sparked by the explosion that disfigured Beirut and scarred so many of its residents had not relented, and violent street clashes flared again.

"The resignation of ministers is not enough. Those who are responsible for the explosion should be held accountable," said Michelle, a demonstrator in her early twenties.

She carried a poster of a friend who was killed in the blast, inscribed with the message "My government killed me".

'Direct' aid

Demonstrators lamented that security forces were using tear gas against blast victims instead of helping them clean their wrecked homes and find a roof.

"We need an international investigation and trial to tell us who killed our friends and all the other victims, because they might try to conceal the truth," said Michelle.

French President Emmanuel Macron supported the idea when he visited last Thursday, but his calls for reform and transparency appeared to receive less attention among Lebanese officialdom than his offer to raise aid money.

An online emergency support conference Macron chaired Sunday, attended virtually by a slew of world leaders including US President Donald Trump, came up with pledges for more than 250 million euros.

Macron, who was given a hero's welcome when he trudged through the rubble of ravaged old Beirut to meet distressed residents, stressed the aid would go "directly" to the population.

Many Lebanese are sceptically waiting to see how the aid delivery will navigate a sophisticated and deeply entrenched system of local and sectarian patronage organised by the country's party barons.

Lebanese aid groups have warned foreign donors that any financial assistance risked being syphoned away.

The Beirut disaster compounded what has become Lebanon's annus horribilis, deepening a dire economic crisis which had dragged half of the country into poverty in recent months.

The obliteration of the port and its huge grain silos in a country hugely reliant on imports has sparked fears of food shortages in the coming weeks.

Adding to Lebanon's woes, coronavirus cases are reaching new highs almost every day, putting further strain on hospitals that are treating blast victims and the dozens wounded in the repression of the protests.

Jean-Marc Mojon, Layal Abou Rahal

Tags: Hassan DiabLebanonport explosionprime ministerresign
ADVERTISEMENT
AFP

AFP

Related Posts

DFA: No apologies to Kuwait

byRey E. Requejo
May 30, 2023, 1:15 am
0
8
PH, Kuwait set talks on labor issues

PH stands ground on ‘violations,’ will protect troubled Pinoys The Philippines will not apologize for its alleged violations that led...

Read more

‘Betty’ winds hit N. Luzon, storm to exit PH Friday

byRio N. Arajaand1 others
May 30, 2023, 1:10 am
0
8
Puerto bet tops Bb. Pilipinas pageant

More than 4,000 people were moved to safer ground Monday as Typhoon Betty was raised to Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal...

Read more

Lakas reaffirms alliance with six parties to push lawmaking goals

byMaricel Cruz
May 30, 2023, 1:05 am
0
8
Puerto bet tops Bb. Pilipinas pageant

The Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) reaffirmed its solid political alliance with six other parties in the House of Representatives by...

Read more

‘Bigger role for PSE with Maharlika law in place’

byMaricel Cruzand1 others
May 30, 2023, 1:00 am
0
8
Puerto bet tops Bb. Pilipinas pageant

Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez on Monday said the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) will soon play a bigger role in...

Read more

Teves: No plan to go home sans bit of ‘fairness’

byMaricel Cruz
May 30, 2023, 12:55 am
0
8
Teves denies hand in 4 suspects recanting testimonies on killing

Despite facing stiffer sanctions from the House of Representatives, murder suspect and Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. on Monday...

Read more

Puerto bet tops Bb. Pilipinas pageant

byEton B. Concepcion
May 30, 2023, 12:50 am
0
8
Puerto bet tops Bb. Pilipinas pageant

Angelica Lopez, a 22-year-old model from Puerto Princesa, was named Bb. Pilipinas International 2023 at the 59th Binibining Pilipinas grand...

Read more

Print Edition

View More

Recent Posts

  • Russia fires missiles on Kyiv in rare daytime attack
  • China to send first civilian astronaut to space station
  • Moms prefer to splurge on care and healthy products over Mother’s Day feast — Packworks study
  • ROBINSONS BANK CORPORATION: Notice of Annual Stockholders’ Meeting
  • FIRST METRO PHILIPPINE EQUITY EXCHANGE TRADED FUND, INC.: Notice of Annual Shareholders’ Meeting
  • FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC.: Notice of Annual Shareholders’ Meeting
  • FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN F.O.C.C.U.S. DYNAMIC FUND, INC.: Notice of Annual Shareholders’ Meeting
  • FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN PHILIPPINE INDEX FUND, INC.: Notice of Annual Shareholders’ Meeting

Advertisement

Latest News

FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC.: Notice of Annual Shareholders’ Meeting

byManila Standard
May 30, 2023, 6:35 am
0
8
FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN DOLLAR BOND FUND, INC.: Notice of Annual Shareholders’ Meeting

Read more

FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN F.O.C.C.U.S. DYNAMIC FUND, INC.: Notice of Annual Shareholders’ Meeting

byManila Standard
May 30, 2023, 6:30 am
0
8
FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN F.O.C.C.U.S. DYNAMIC FUND, INC.: Notice of Annual Shareholders’ Meeting

Read more

FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN PHILIPPINE INDEX FUND, INC.: Notice of Annual Shareholders’ Meeting

byManila Standard
May 30, 2023, 6:25 am
0
8
FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN PHILIPPINE INDEX FUND, INC.: Notice of Annual Shareholders’ Meeting

Read more

FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN BALANCED FUND, INC.: Notice of Annual Shareholders’ Meeting

byManila Standard
May 30, 2023, 6:20 am
0
8
FIRST METRO SAVE AND LEARN BALANCED FUND, INC.: Notice of Annual Shareholders’ Meeting

Read more

FIRST METRO CONSUMER FUND, INC: Notice of Annual Shareholders’ Meeting

byManila Standard
May 30, 2023, 6:15 am
0
8
FIRST METRO CONSUMER FUND, INC: Notice of Annual Shareholders’ Meeting

Read more

Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube

ABOUT US

Manila Standard

Manila Standard website (manilastandard.net), launched in August 2002, extends the newspaper’s reach beyond its traditional readers and makes its brand of Philippine news and opinion available to a much wider and geographically diverse readership here and overseas.

Digital Edition

In tone and content, the online edition mirrors the editorial thrust of the newspaper. While hewing to the traditional precepts of fairness and objectivity, MS believes the news of the day need not be staid, overly long or dry. Stories are succinct, readable and written in a lively style that has become a hallmark of the newspaper.

Download – Today’s Paper

Search

No Result
View All Result

6th Floor Universal Re Bldg., 106 Paseo De Roxas cor. Perea Street, Legaspi Village, 1226 Makati City Philippines

Trunklines: 832-5554, 832-5556, 832-5558

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Pop.Life
    • Newsmakers
    • Hangouts
    • A-Pop
    • Post Its
    • Performances
    • Malls & Bazaars
    • Hobbies & Collections
  • Technology
    • Gadgets
    • Computers
    • Business
    • Tech Plus
  • MS ON THE ROAD
    • Sedan
    • SUV
    • Truck
    • Bike
    • Accessories
    • Motoring Plus
    • Commuter’s Corner
  • Home & Design
    • Residential
    • Commercial
    • Construction
    • Interior
  • Spotlight
  • Gallery
    • Photos
    • Videos
  • Events
    • Seminars
    • Exhibits
    • Community
  • Biyahero
    • Travel Features
    • Travel Reels
    • Travel Logs
  • Pets
  • Advertise with Us

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Install Manila Standard Web App

Install App