Beirut port explosion
of 2020, revisited.
Plus: Rise of Hezbollah and the Lebanese crisis
September 1, 2024
For the busiest:
On August 4, 2020, a massive explosion devastated the Beirut port and surrounding areas of the city. The investigation is still incomplete.
The blast was caused by Ammonium Nitrate. The dangerous cargo was at the port for years, as various authorities avoided taking responsibility for it.
Politics in Lebanon are characterised by high levels of corruption and a constant state of crisis.
The sectarian system resulted in a chronically inefficient government, struggling to agree on any policies and unable to overcome deadlocks.
Before the port explosion, Lebanon has already been experiencing a severe economic crisis.
Hezbollah, a Shia-majority Islamist party and paramilitary group supported by Iran, has gained strength in the some parts of Lebanon.
Hezbollah's political organisation, security forces, and social infrastructure form a "state within a state", competing with the Lebanese government for authority over some areas of the country.
According to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Hezbollah is the world's most heavily armed non-state actor.
It belongs to the "axis of resistance” – an Iran-backed alliance, aiming to counter Israel and the US presence in the Middle East and North Africa.
On August 4, 2020, a massive explosion devastated the Beirut port and surrounding areas of the city.
At least 218 people died from the blast, with over 7,000 injured. 77,000 apartments were destroyed, displacing around 300,000 people, including 80,000 children.
The exact figures are still debated as the investigation is incomplete.
The explosion destroyed approximately $4 billion in value, while causing $15-20 billion in damages to the economy.
Three hospitals were destroyed and another three were damaged, leaving Beirut without a half of its health infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The blast, one of the most devastating in history, was caused by 2,750 tons of Ammonium Nitrate (AN). AN is commonly used as fertiliser, but this batch was intended for making mining explosives in Mozambique.
The chemical compound has been at the port for 7 years before the explosion. The ship carrying it was docked for technical reasons and later confiscated due to owner’s debts to the port.
The dangerous cargo was never moved from the warehouse that it was stored in, as various authorities avoided taking responsibility.
In August 2020, a fire started at a nearby warehouse and later spread to ignite the Ammonium Nitrate.
Protests against the Lebanese government’s corruption and mismanagement were ongoing since October 2019 when a controversial tax package was proposed, including taxes on tobacco, petrol and a monthly $6 charge for using WhatsApp.
It came right after a series of wildfires devastated parts of Lebanon, exposing poor state of the country’s firefighting aviation and equipment.
On August 6, 2020, protests intensified following the shocking port explosion.
On August 8, thousands of protesters stormed the Foreign Affairs Ministry and many other government buildings, with hundreds of protesters wounded and one police officer killed.
On August 10, the Lebanese government led by Hassan Diab resigned, as civil protest pressure mounted.
The investigation into the Beirut port explosion was slowed and disrupted by high-level political actors, including Hezbollah, despite the initial promise to wrap it up within days..
A small number of lower-level officials were arrested and detained or restricted from leaving Lebanon.
Independent investigations traced the ownership of the cargo through offshore and international agents to a Ukrainian company Savaro, which sold chemicals and fertilisers to Africa since the early 2000s.
Lebanese politicians and officials protested the judge’s rights to question them in relation to the blast. They legally disputed the investigation, leading to it being frozen since 2021.
When the judge attempted to resume the investigation in 2023 by charging senior prosecutors for obstructing justice, the county’s head prosecutor (who was also charged) ordered the immediate release of all suspects detained in the investigation and introduced sanctions against the judge.
The Beirut port is likely used for illicit activities by many parties, including Hezbollah and government officials, interested in preventing an effective investigation into the port’s workings.
Many international organisations and some Lebanese politicians have called for an international investigation, without success.
Politics in Lebanon are characterised by high levels of corruption and a constant state of crisis.
Currently, the parliament is unable to elect a new President for almost two years, and nine different governments exchanged since 2005.
Lebanese political system is representing different religious sects, with key roles divided between specific confessions since the end of French colonial rule in 1943.
The President is always a Maronite Christian Catholic, the Prime Minister – Sunni Muslim, and the Speaker of Parliament – Shia Muslim.
The sectarian system resulted in a chronically inefficient government, struggling to agree on any policies and unable to overcome deadlocks.
Government officials are often appointed through personal loyalty, alliances or bribery, rather than skill.
The October 2019 protests demanded an end to this sectarian divide and government corruption.
Before the Beirut port explosion, Lebanon has already been experiencing a deep economic crisis, described by the World Bank as one of the most severe on the planet since 1850.
It was rooted in decades of economic mismanagement after the end of the 1990 civil war
Lebanon set a fixed exchange rate of 1,507.5 Lebanese pounds per US dollar, which required holding large reserves of foreign currency.
The Central Bank of Lebanon attracted foreign currencies by offering high interest rates on deposits, especially for the Lebanese diaspora.
These inflows were then used to pay off existing debts, creating what many economists described as a government-ran "Ponzi scheme".
By 2019, Lebanese economy was struggling as government debt grew, GDP growth slowed, and millions of refugees entered the country following the outbreak of the civil war in neighbouring Syria.
There was an increasing shortage of US dollars due to the fixed exchange rate. The black market price of the dollar grew from 1,600 to 4,200 Lebanese pounds between 2019 and 2020.
Limits on personal withdrawals and transfers in US dollars, as well as questionable economic policies, created uncertainty and led to a run on banks to withdraw funds, collapsing the Lebanese banking system.
Lebanon's GDP fell from $55 billion in 2018 to about $35 billion in 2020.
The crisis led to long queues at gas stations, limited access to electricity and drinking water, disruption of food supply and telecommunications, and failing health services.
In 2019, at the peak of the crisis, 96% of Lebanese believed their government was corrupt. This perception had consistently remained at almost 90% in the previous years, according to a Gallup poll.
Hezbollah, a Shia-majority Islamist party and paramilitary group supported by Iran, has gained strength in large parts of Lebanon amid the crisis facing the Lebanese state.
Hezbollah was founded during the Lebanese Civil War as a response to the second Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
At the time, Israel looked to counter Palestine Liberation Organisation, active from Southern Lebanon.
The US considers Hezbollah a terrorist organisation since 1997 for their involvement in multiple bombings, including an attack on US embassy in Lebanon in 1983, killing 63 people, and on Israeli embassy in Argentina in 1992, killing 29.
Hezbollah published its manifesto in 1985, aiming to combat Western powers in the Middle East, destroy the Israeli state and act in allegiance to the Supreme Leader of Iran.
The group is split between a military and a political wing, with the later being a party of the Lebanese parliament.
Hezbollah is ruled by the Shura Council, composed of seven members, it is led by the Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and oversees five councils: parliamentary, executive, political, judicial and jihad.
Hezbollah influences Lebanese politics with its elected representatives and affiliated ministers. The group succeeded in directing government resources to some members of its network.
Lebanon is ranked 149 out of 180 countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index, highlighting long-lasting systemic flaws.
Hezbollah and its allies won 41 out of 218 seats in the Parliament of Lebanon in the 2022 elections.
The group also controls many municipal councils and allegedly awards public sector jobs to its members, thus increasing its influence within the state apparatus.
Hezbollah's political organisation, security forces, and social infrastructure form a "state within a state", competing with the Lebanese government for authority over some areas of the country.
Hezbollah runs schools, a television network, medical clinics, banks, and religious services, especially for the Shiite Muslim population, often more efficiently than the Lebanese state.
According to a 2024 Arab Barometer poll, only about 30% of the Lebanese people declare to have "quite a lot" or "a great deal" of trust in Hezbollah. However, at the confessional level, more than 80% of Lebanese who profess Shiite Islam support Hezbollah.
Hezbollah is a hybrid actor that operates inside and outside state institutions. This allows the group to have political legitimacy while maintaining low accountability.
Even if Hezbollah's is less numerous than the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), the group can count on advanced asymmetric warfare capabilities, guerrilla urban tactics, and significant resources and training from Iran.
Hezbollah's military force is now considered stronger than that of the LAF.
Hezbollah is taking advantage of the Lebanese state's weaknesses to increase its relative power without trying to seize full control and risking a potential civil war between the religious minorities.
Therefore, it aims to preserve the current situation of a power vacuum within a failing state.
There are some additional risks associated with a takeover that Hezbollah wants to avoid:
International donors would cut off aid, which accounted for about $930 million in 2023.
The West would likely impose strict economic sanctions on Lebanon.
Hezbollah would become a national political actor, forced to address the needs of all Lebanese citizens, regardless of their religious community.
Hezbollah belongs to the so-called "axis of resistance” – an Iran-backed alliance, including the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in the Gaza Strip and other Shiite militias, aiming to counter Israel and the US presence in the Middle East.
Hezbollah is loyal to and ideologically aligned with the Supreme Leader of Iran.
Iran and its Revolutionary Guard Corps support the group militarily and economically.
Hezbollah has successfully helped Iran to expand its influence in the Middle East through its activity in Lebanon and attacks on Israel.
According to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Hezbollah is the world's most heavily armed non-state actor.
Hezbollah is believed to possess between 100,000 and 150,00 rockets and missiles, chemical weapons and advanced drone capabilities.
Nasrallah stated that the group had 100,000 trained fighters, more than the Lebanese army's 85,000. However, independent reports approximate Hezbollah’s force at 20,000 to 50,000 fighters.
While the group maintained autonomy in domestic decisions, it has been more aligned with Iran on foreign policy issues. For example, Hezbollah has deployed troops in support of the Syrian regime during the civil war there, in line with Iranian interests.
Iran also relies on the group's strategic geographical proximity to Israel, allowing Iran to damage Israel at a low financial and political cost and away from its national borders.
Hezbollah is estimated to have an annual budget of at least $1 billion.
According to independent research, Hezbollah's largest revenue source is direct transfers from Iran, amounting to $700-800 million yearly.
Even if the specific amount is unknown, Hezbollah's second-largest revenue source is money gathered domestically, including the Islamic tax known as khums, food smuggling, and services like health and education.
The third source of revenue is derived from illicit international activities such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and weapons smuggling, totalling at least $300 million yearly.
Hezbollah has solid ties with Latin American drug cartels, with which the group collaborated as a drug distributor, particularly of cocaine, across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
Hezbollah also gathered money from the Lebanese global diaspora through
Religious contributions like the khums, which obliges Shiites to contribute 1/5 of their income to religious leaders
Extortions, including Lebanese businessmen in dangerous areas of the world who are forced to pay a "protection fee”
Fundraising through Hezbollah-linked charities.
In the past ten years, Hezbollah's financial reserves were drained by its military participation in the Syrian civil war and by US sanctions. Despite this, the impact on the group has been minimal due to consistent money transfers from Iran.
Author Elia Preto Martini
Editor Anton Kutuzov