2 more officials resign amid Beirut blast furor; U.S., other donors raise $298M in aid

Demonstrators march holding candles and flashlights honoring the victims of the deadly explosion at Beirut port which devastated large parts of the capital, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020.
Demonstrators march holding candles and flashlights honoring the victims of the deadly explosion at Beirut port which devastated large parts of the capital, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020.

BEIRUT -- Lebanon's government was in crisis Sunday as key ministers resigned after the blast that gutted parts of the capital last week and demonstrators furious with the country's ruling elite took to the streets for a second day.

Also Sunday, world leaders including President Donald Trump took part in a donors videoconference organized by the United Nations and French President Emmanuel Macron, and a total of $298 million was raised, according to Macron's office.

The participants also included Jordan's King Abdullah II, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and other top officials from China, the European Union and the Gulf Arab countries. "Everyone wants to help!" Trump tweeted.

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The final statement from the conference said: "In these horrendous times, Lebanon is not alone."

In Beirut, Information Minister Manal Abdel-Samad and Environment Minister Damianos Kattar stepped down Sunday, though the actions fell far short of the protesters' demands. At least seven members of parliament have also resigned, and at least two others have announced plans to do so.

The resignation of Abdel-Samad, in which she cited failure to meet the people's aspirations and the Beirut blast, was followed by a swirl of reports that other ministers were also resigning. Late Sunday, Kattar resigned, calling the ruling system "flaccid and sterile."

He stepped down despite closed meetings into the evening and a flurry of phone calls between Prime Minister Hassan Diab and several ministers after Abdel-Samad's announcement. The political haggling had appeared to put off more resignations, and a Cabinet meeting is planned today.

If seven of the 20 ministers resign, the Cabinet would effectively have to step down and remain in place as a caretaker government.

Paula Yacoubian, an independent member of parliament, was among those who announced her resignation. "I cannot stay within the mafia," she said. "They stole everything, they destroyed the country and they want to continue doing business as usual."

After the explosion, she said, the only "reasonable and sane" thing to do is to ask the government to resign "and to start again."

BYPASSING GOVERNMENT

In an indictment of Lebanon's government, Macron has indicated that assistance should go directly to the Lebanese people. Trump reaffirmed that the United States is "ready and willing" to continue providing aid to the people of Lebanon, but no new U.S. assistance was announced Sunday.

The International Monetary Fund said that it was ready to "redouble efforts" to help Lebanon, but that institutions need to come together to carry out policy changes -- a demand the Lebanese government has resisted.

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The teleconference participants promised emergency aid -- focusing on medicine and hospitals, schools, food and housing.

The donors pledged the aid will be coordinated by the U.N. and delivered directly to the Lebanese people -- in a clear indication that no money is going to the government and its coffers.

Macron, whose country once governed Lebanon as a protectorate, said, "We have to do everything we can so that violence and chaos do not win the day."

"The explosion of Aug. 4 was like a thunderbolt. It's time to wake up and take action. The Lebanese authorities now have to put in place ... political and economic reforms."

John Barsa, acting director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, planned to visit Beirut this week to assess needs in the wake of the explosion.

USAID has said it would give Lebanon more than $15 million in humanitarian aid. The U.S. military said it has begun to deliver food, water and medical supplies to Beirut.

Barsa told reporters Sunday that the assistance will not go through the Lebanese government. Nor will it go through the World Health Organization, from which the Trump administration has said it will withdraw.

Instead, he said, health kits will be delivered to the American University of Beirut's medical center, and the hospital connected with the Lebanese American University. About $2.5 million is to be directed to the World Food Program.

Macron said "we must act quickly and efficiently so that this aid goes directly to where it is needed," Reuters reported. "Lebanon's future is at stake."

The conference's decision to channel aid through the United Nations came as a disappointment to many Lebanese, said Randa Slim, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, because the U.N. typically works closely with government institutions.

"I'm afraid the aid, under the guise of humanitarian assistance, will be used one more time to give a lifeline to the kleptocratic class," she said.

EARLY VOTE OFFERED

The blast at Beirut's port, which killed at least 160 people, wounded thousands and left hundreds of thousands homeless, has fueled calls for a complete shake-up of Lebanon's political system, dominated by family dynasties that have changed little in the decades since the country's 15-year civil war. The explosion has triggered anger at the official corruption, incompetence and negligence that allowed 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in bomb-making, to sit unattended and unsecured at the port for six years.

As violent protests engulfed the city Saturday night, Diab offered early elections. He said he needed two months to reach an agreement with the country's factions.

For citizens struggling from a catastrophic economic collapse and shattered homes, discussion of new political agreements falls short.

"We are not going to quit," Pascale Asmar, 33, said in the central Martyr's Square, a focus of the protests. "We call [Diab] 'the vase,' because he's just for show, he does nothing."

Diab's government, formed in January when the last one quit after mass demonstrations in October, was supposed to be a rescue team of technocrats. But it was formed from familiar factions, including the Shiite parties, Hezbollah and Amal.

"He told us, 'Give us 100 days and I promise you I'm going to do something,'" Asmar said. "It's been seven months, we've had a blast, we still have people buried under the rubble, and he wants to stay?"

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Three members of parliament also resigned Sunday, but there was little sign of the kind of change that would satisfy the street.

Diab told his Cabinet that it should "bear responsibility," according to a person at the meeting who spoke only anonymously. "Right now we cannot leave the country void and vacant," he quoted the prime minister as saying.

The early elections offered by Diab are unlikely to materialize, said Slim of the Middle East Institute. And even if they did, she said, any polls held soon would almost certainly benefit the ruling establishment.

She said the offer seemed designed more to appease the international community ahead of the aid conference.

"It's a trap," she said. "He knows that early elections would resuscitate the current system."

But Diab's government is clearly teetering, said Maha Yahya, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center.

"It's a lame-duck government not capable of doing anything, not trusted by the international community, not trusted by the people and not trusted even by the people who brought him to power," Yahya said.

MORE PROTESTS

Protesters on Saturday occupied government buildings, set fires and threw rocks toward security forces, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets.

Some accused security forces of firing tear gas canisters before the demonstration began and of beating demonstrators without provocation. The Lebanese Red Cross said at least 65 people were taken to hospitals and 185 were treated at the scene. The army said 105 soldiers were injured.

Demonstrations on Sunday were smaller and quieter. Some protesters said the violence of the night before was keeping people away.

But as night fell, rock-throwing protesters clashed with security forces near the parliament. Protesters in Martyr's Square chanted for revenge and change.

Taxi driver Talal Monzer, 35, was offering free rides to activists traveling back and forth from the square Sunday.

The government has to go, he said. "We need new people -- people from among the people."

Information for this article was contributed by Loveday Morris, Suzan Haidamous, Louisa Loveluck, Liz Sly, Nader Durgham, Sarah Dadouch and Felicia Sonmez of The Washington Post; and by Sarah El Deeb and Sylvie Corbet of The Associated Press.

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AP

Demonstrators in Beirut light candles Sunday to honor victims of last week’s explosion at the city port. Sunday’s protests against the Lebanese government were quieter than the day before, but clashes broke out as night fell. More photos at arkansasonline.com/810clash/.
(AP/Felipe Dana)

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AP

A protester in Beirut uses a slingshot against Lebanese riot police Sunday during an anti-govern- ment demonstration over Tuesday’s deadly explosion. More photos at arkansasonline.com/810clash/. (AP/Hussein Malla)

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