Lebanese customs have called six times for the rise of dangerous ammonium nitrate from the port of Beirut. No one answered them

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An analysis of public documents shows that Lebanese officials have known for more than six years that a huge load of ammonium nitrate is being stored in hangar 12 of the port of Beirut.

Moreover, they were aware of the danger that this substance poses.

Most likely, ammonium nitrate was unloaded in port from the Rhodes ship, a cargo ship owned by a Russian, which was sailing under the Moldovan flag, and which stopped in Beirut in 2013 during a voyage between Georgia and Mozambique, according to the Marine Navigation Monitoring website Fleetmon.

A few months after storage, on June 27, 2014, the then director of Lebanese Customs, Shafik Merhi, sent a letter to an unappointed judge, requesting a solution to take over the 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate.

Subsequently, customs officials sent at least five more letters – on December 5, 2014, May 6, 2015, May 20, 2016, October 13, 2016 and October 27, 2017, asking for instructions.

They also proposed three options: exporting ammonium nitrate, handing it over to the Lebanese Army, or selling it to a private explosives company.

One of the letters, sent in 2016, said there had been no response from the judges.

The same letter said: “Given the danger of storing these goods in the hangar under appropriate climatic conditions, we reiterate our request to ask the marine agency to re-export these goods immediately in order to ensure the security of the port and those working in it, or to approve the sale of the substance to the Lebanese Explosives Company,” the news said.

Once again, there was no answer.

A year later, Badri Daher, the new director of the Lebanese Customs Administration, wrote another letter to a judge.

On 27 October 2017, Daher asked the judge to reach a solution, taking into account the “danger of abandoning these assets in their place”.

Three years after this letter, ammonium nitrate was still in the hangar.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab promised on Tuesday that all those responsible for the catastrophe “will pay the price.” An investigation has been launched.

The cause of the explosion is not yet officially known, but many Lebanese, Al Jazeera writes, have pointed the finger at the lack of rules and corruption in a nearly failed state, led by a political class that treats citizens with contempt.

For many Lebanese it is symbolic that the explosion took place in the port, a place that locals also call “the cave of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves”, because of the alleged thefts of public money that would have taken place there for years.

Critics say that because of corruption and tax evasion in the port, the Lebanese state has been deprived of billions of dollars in taxes and taxes.