Report: France Handed Blast Satellite Images to Lebanon

Countering reports published in Lebanese media, France said it handed Lebanese authorities as requested the satellite images of the port of Beirut before the August 4 blast ripped through the capital, Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Thursday.

An official in the French presidency stated that Paris has handed the images to Lebanese authorities contrary to what was rumored in some media outlets, said the daily.

The source emphasized that the Lebanese government must therefore "disclose" the results of an investigation into the explosion and "make them public."

In October, caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab complained that Lebanon has yet to receive the "before, during and after" images from France and Italy as requested as part of a probe into the explosion.

Satellite imagery could help provide more details on one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in the world that killed around 200 people in Beirut, wounded thousands and left around 300,000 homeless.

The explosion was caused by a shipment of ammonium nitrate fertilizer that caught fire.

Lebanese officials have rejected an international probe despite demands both from home and abroad for an impartial investigation.

A local probe has yielded the arrest of at least 25 suspects, including the chief of the port and its customs director.

Lebanon's ruling elite, many of them warlords in the country's 1975-1990 civil war, had known for years that ammonium nitrate was stored in a destitute port warehouse without precautionary measures.

Their negligence and corruption is widely blamed for the disaster that wounded at least 6,500 people and displaced thousands more from their homes.