Hezbollah chief warns against ‘politicizing’ Lebanon port blast probe

BEIRUT — The head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Saturday warned against “politicizing” a probe into a deadly port blast last year, rejecting accusations that the group was involved in bringing explosive fertilizer to the dockside.

Hassan Nasrallah spoke after Lebanon on Wednesday marked one year since hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded at a Beirut port warehouse, killing at least 214 people and wrecking swathes of the city.

The Shiite group’s detractors have in recent weeks claimed it was involved in bringing the substance to the port so it could travel on to neighboring Syria for its ally the Damascus government to use in barrel bombs during the Syrian civil war. 

But Nasrallah in a televised speech dismissed these accusations as “fabricated" and “ridiculous.”

“As if Hezbollah which has weapons and rockets ... needs to bring in nitrate,” added the head of the Iran-backed group.

“As if, with its warehouses to fit tens of thousands of rockets, it did not have warehouses in which to put the nitrate.”

He dismissed the accusations as “political targeting paid for by America and Saudi Arabia in service of Israel.”

It emerged after the explosion that officials had known the ammonium nitrate had been lingering at the port for years.

A local probe was launched into the disaster but has stalled, with families of the victims and survivors growing increasingly angry and accusing politicians of trying to hamper it at every turn.

Nasrallah in his speech also took a swipe at the lead judge probing the explosion, calling on him to provide proof to back up his decision to summon current and former officials for questioning in the case. 

“Where is the evidence?” he said, calling on Judge Tarek Bitar to share the results.

The judge is demanding that Parliament lift the immunity of three former ministers so he can proceed with investigations, but lawmakers have requested more evidence before deciding on whether to waive immunity. 

Bitar has rejected Parliament’s request.

The caretaker interior minister also did not allow Bitar to question top intelligence official Abbas Ibrahim over the blast.

“The investigation is politicized,” Nasrallah said. “Either he must work ... in a clear manner or the judiciary must find another judge.” 

In February, Bitar’s predecessor was removed by a court, which had questioned his impartiality because his home had been damaged in the explosion.

In his speech, Nasrallah also addressed Israeli airstrikes carried out overnight Wednesday, saying his group had chosen to respond to them with rocket fire targeting open land, but could escalate its actions in the future.

No strikes were reported on Saturday, and no casualties have been reported thus far.

On Friday, Hezbollah fired rockets towards Israeli forces, drawing retaliatory fire from Israel into south Lebanon. Both sides targeted open land, indicating that they did not wish to escalate the salvos further.

In a speech commemorating the end of the 2006 war with Israel, Nasrallah said this week’s Israeli airstrikes were a “dangerous development” that had not been seen in the last 15 years.

He said the group wanted to show any Israeli airstrike would be responded to in“the appropriate and proportional way.”

“We chose yesterday open land in the Shebaa Farms area to send a message, and to take a step, and we can later escalate by another step,” Nasrallah said.

Nasrallah said that Hezbollah’s options included a response on any open land in “northern occupied Palestine,” Galilee or the Golan Heights.

The exchanges began on Wednesday with a rocket strike on Israel from Lebanon for which no group claimed responsibility. That attack, on which Hezbollah has not commented, drew retaliatory Israeli artillery and airstrikes.

Regional tensions are running high following an alleged Iranian attack on an Israeli-managed oil tanker in the Gulf last week in which two crew members were killed. Tehran denies involvement.