Diab Clarifies His Remarks about Ammonium Nitrate

Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Wednesday clarified the remarks he voiced Tuesday about the ammonium nitrate quantity that exploded at Beirut’s port on August 4.

“PM Diab relied in his remarks on unofficial information attributed to the FBI and he has not received an official report in this regard from the FBI,” his press office said.

One of his advisers told AFP he had been referring to press reports.

AFP could not independently verify the contents of the FBI report.

The U.S. agency declined to comment, referring back to its August statement that "further questions should be directed to the Lebanese authorities as the lead investigators."

"The FBI report revealed that the amount that exploded is only 500 tons," Diab told reporters on Tuesday. "Where did the (other) 2,200 tons go?" he asked.

The caretaker prime minister, who resigned in the wake of the blast that killed more than 200 people, had previously said that more than 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had been stored haphazardly at a port warehouse for years.

Nearly five months after the blast, little light has been shed on the circumstances that led to Lebanon's worst peacetime disaster, which is widely blamed on decades of negligence and corruption by the country's ruling elite.

Lead investigative judge Fadi Sawwan this month charged Diab and three former ministers over the explosion in the first set of indictments against politicians.

He charged them with "negligence and causing death to hundreds and injuries to thousands more" in the first such official indictment against a prime minister in office in Lebanese history.

The blast probe has since been suspended after two of the charged ministers called on Sawwan to be replaced. Lebanon's top Court of Cassation must rule on their request before investigations proceed.

The investigation had led to the arrest of at least 25 suspects, including the chief of the port and its customs director, but not a single politician.