{"id":43471,"date":"2020-08-09T10:27:05","date_gmt":"2020-08-09T10:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=43471"},"modified":"2020-08-09T10:27:05","modified_gmt":"2020-08-09T10:27:05","slug":"is-france-helping-lebanon-or-trying-to-reconquer-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=43471","title":{"rendered":"Is France helping Lebanon, or trying to reconquer it?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"82\">\n<p>\nBEIRUT: Lebanon\u2019s information minister Manal Abdel Samad on Sunday quit in the first government resignation since a deadly port blast killed more than 150 people and destroyed swathes of the capital.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cAfter the enormous Beirut catastrophe, I announce my resignation from government,\u201d she said in a statement carried by local media, apologizing to the Lebanese public for failing them.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe head of Lebanon\u2019s Maronite church meanwhile called on the entire government to step down over the August 4 explosion, a blast widely seen as shocking proof of the rot at the core of the state apparatus.<\/p>\n<p>\nLebanese protesters enraged by the blast vowed to rally again after a night of street clashes in which they stormed several ministries.<\/p>\n<p>\nMaronite patriarch Beshara Rai joined the chorus of people pressing Prime Minister Hassan Diab\u2019s cabinet to step down over a blast he said could be \u201cdescribed as a crime against humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cIt is not enough for a lawmaker to resign here or a minister to resign there,\u201d Rai said in a Sunday sermon.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cIt is necessary, out of sensitivity to the feelings of the Lebanese and the immense responsibility required, for the entire government to resign, because it is incapable of moving the country forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nRai echoed calls by Diab for early parliamentary polls \u2014 a long-standing demand of a protest movement that began in October, demanding the removal of a political class deemed inept and corrupt.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe also joined world leaders, international organizations and the angry Lebanese public by pressing for an international probe into an explosion authorities say was triggered by a fire in a port warehouse, where a huge shipment of hazardous ammonium nitrate had languished for years.<\/p>\n<p>\nPresident Michel Aoun on Friday rejected calls for an international investigation, which he said would \u201cdilute the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nAt least six lawmakers have quit since the explosion.<\/p>\n<p>\nUnder increased pressure from the street and foreign partners exasperated by the leadership\u2019s inability to enact reforms, Diab\u2019s government is fraying at the edges.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BEIRUT: Lebanon\u2019s information minister Manal Abdel Samad on Sunday quit in the first government resignation since a deadly port blast killed more than 150 people and destroyed swathes of the capital. \u201cAfter the enormous Beirut catastrophe, I announce my resignation from government,\u201d she said in a statement carried by local media, apologizing to the Lebanese&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}