Beirut Explosion: Lebanese President, Michel Aoun, Rejects Foreign Investigation

Lebanese President, Michel Aoun, has spoken up on accepting foreign probe into the cause of into the catastrophic Beirut port blast.

Aoun while speaking on Friday rejected the call for international investigations into the explosion. He, however, stated a missile or negligence could have been responsible as rescuers desperately combed the rubble for survivors.

The entrenched ruling class has come under fire once again since Tuesday’s explosion, which killed at least 154 people and devastated swathes of the capital.

The revelation that a huge shipment of hazardous ammonium nitrate had languished for years in a warehouse in the heart of the capital served as shocking proof to many Lebanese of the rot at the core of their political system.

Aoun also admitted Friday that the “paralysed” system needed to be “reconsidered”. He pledged “swift justice”, but rejected widespread calls for an international probe, telling a reporter he saw it as an attempt to “dilute the truth”.

“There are two possible scenarios for what happened: it was either negligence or foreign interference through a missile or bomb,” he said, the first time a top Lebanese official raised the possibility that the port had been attacked.