Beirut’s Wound Was Wound of Negligence

The massive explosion in Beirut port shocked the world. Some 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate stored at a warehouse in a port which was the vital economic vein of Lebanon is considered a negligence in its absolute sense of the word, even if it is said that ammonium nitrate with the chemical formula of NH4NO3 is a chemical fertilizer and it is used for nitriding the soil for improving productivity in cultivation but being at the same time an explosive material. Ammonium nitrate is used mostly place of fertilizer (urea) and nitrogen accounts for 34 percent of each gram of ammonium nitrate and this gives to this material both explosive potential and power for more durability in the atmosphere.

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

Agro experts believe the advantage of ammonium nitrate to urea is its sustainability in the soil because the existence of nitrogen prolongs the longevity and durability of a fertilizer. But among the explosive materials, ammonium nitrate is not considered as a material with explosive property but in case heat or detonator causes a burning in this material, it definitely functions like an explosive material with accelerated blast waves.

Beirut blast is today the result of this kind of explosion that the fire in the lateral warehouse close to this material has caused a destructive and unbelievable act. The news and reports coming from Beirut all show that all Lebanon’s officials and Judiciary were aware of storage of this huge amount of ammonium nitrate in the port.

After the blast in the port, Reuters in a report said a ship carrying 2,750 tons of a highly combustible chemical from Georgia to Mozambique was confiscated in 2013 and the cargo was kept in this warehouse till the legal case was sorted out. This seemingly Russian ship is named the Rhosus, sailing under a Moldovan flag, docked in Beirut in September 2013.

Lebanese TV channel LBCI had earlier reported that this huge amount of ammonium nitrate with explosive power was being carried by the Rhosus when it had technical problems while sailing from Georgia to Mozambique. When the ship was being directed to the port, it was found that the ship’s cargo was ammonium nitrate. So this chemical material was removed from cargo vessel Rhosus and deposited in warehouse 12, to ensure port safety till the legal case was settled.

According to the latest reports and remarks of security experts, the explosion happened during welding whose sparks hit the firecrackers at the warehouse and the firecrackers acted like a detonator for the ammonium and caused the huge blast.

LBCI also reported that due to the explosion, all the stored wheat in the other warehouses and silos were destroyed completely and all buildings of silos have become useless and the port is almost destroyed. What the media say about this blast is important but unbelievable. Hours after the blast two official media outlets Al-Arabia TV channel and the British newspaper the Independent blamed Israel for the explosion, claiming this is the cost that Lebanese people are paying for the presence of Hezbollah forces in the country.

Managing Director of Iranian conservative Persian daily Kayhan, Mr. Hossein Shariatmadari, in an article by bringing some reasons claimed that Saudi Arabia is today an Arab country and at the same time one of the closest countries to the Zionist regime and one cannot accept that Al-Arabia which reflects the policies of Saudi Family accuses the Zionist regime of committing such a horrible crime of explosion in Beirut. But why does it do it? This is the question. Al-Arabia has said,” Hezbollah should be eliminated from the political and security scenes of Lebanon in order that such a similar accident would be avoided any more.”

If we see it as the Zionist regime’s threat against Lebanon, expressing the threat through the pen of the Saudi Family’s media is just a media issue and it cannot be reasonably true. I believe that the Beirut’s wound is because of Lebanese Judiciary and port officials’ negligence and fanning the flame of such seditious assumptions is not to the benefit of anyone.

 By: Hamid Reza Naghashian