Lebanon government resigns after deadly Beirut blast

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced on Monday the resignation of his government after a powerful Beirut port explosion sparked public uproar against the country’s leaders.

Diab, in a televised speech, said the detonation of highly-explosive material warehoused at the port in the capital for the last seven years was “the result of endemic corruption”.

“Today we follow the will of the people in their demand to hold accountable those responsible for the disaster that has been in hiding for seven years, and their desire for real change,” he said. “In the face of this reality ... I am announcing today the resignation of this government.”

The cabinet had already been under pressure to step down over last week’s explosion that killed 163 people, wounded some 6,000 and left around 300,000 without habitable housing. Several ministers had already resigned over the weekend.

The information and environment ministers quit on Sunday as well as several lawmakers, and the justice minister followed them out the door on Monday.

Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni, a key negotiator with the IMF over a rescue plan to help Lebanon exit a financial crisis, prepared his resignation letter and brought it with him to the cabinet meeting, a source close to him and local media said.

Anti-government protests in the past two days have been the biggest since October, when angry demonstrations spread over an economic crisis rooted in pervasive graft, mismanagement and high-level unaccountability. Protesters accused the political elite of siphoning off state resources for their own benefit.