BEIRUT: The United States called on Saturday for a transparent and credible investigation into the massive port blast in Beirut that killed 172 people and said Lebanon could never go back to the days “in which anything goes” at its ports and borders. It’s really overwhelming,” David Hale, US Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, said after visiting the port. Lebanon’s most senior Christian cleric said the Lebanese people and the international community had run out of patience with ruling politicians. In his strongest intervention yet since the blast, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai also said the church reserved the right to veto any proposals that further jeopardize Lebanon. The Maronite church exercises political sway in a country where the head of state must be a Maronite, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the parliament speaker a Shiite Muslim.

Source: Ethiopian News August 15, 2020 11:37 UTC