Govt. agrees to demolish port silos, approves funds for wheat, medicine

Cabinet on Thursday agreed to demolish the blast-hit silos at Beirut’s port, which according to a technical report are facing the threat of collapse, as it approved the use of funds from the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights for importing wheat and incurable disease medicines.

“The banking secrecy law will be re-discussed at the next Cabinet session,” Information Minister Ziad Makari said after the meeting.

“The Council for Reconstruction and Development has been tasked with overseeing the demolition of wheat silos at Beirut’s port,” Makari added.

Al-Jadeed TV meanwhile reported that Cabinet agreed that Special Drawing Rights funds can only be used for urgent matters and that any such move would require a Cabinet decision

Makari said the government's decision to demolish the silos was based on a report by Lebanon's Khatib and Alami Engineering Company, which warned that the silos could collapse within months.

"Repairing them will cost a lot," Makari said.

Last year, Swiss company Amann Engineering also called for their demolition, saying the most damaged of the silos were tilting at a rate of two millimeters per day.

Once boasting a capacity of more than 100,000 tons, the imposing 48-meter-high structure has become emblematic of the catastrophic August 4 port blast, that killed around 231 people, injured 7,000 and damaged swathes of the capital in 2020.

The silos absorbed much of the blast's impact, shielding large swaths of west Beirut from its ravaging effects.

Activists and some relatives of blast victims have called for the grain silos to be preserved as a memorial site.

"The silos are a witness to the massacre you committed against us," said a statement last month by the victims' families, referring to authorities.

"They will not be demolished, no matter how hard you try."

To assuage potential anger over the decision, the Cabinet on Thursday tasked the interior and culture ministries with erecting a monument commemorating the victims of the explosion.

Authorities say the blast was caused by a shipment of ammonium nitrate fertilizer that caught fire after being impounded for years on end in haphazard conditions.

Investigations into the tragedy have been paused for months over what rights groups and relatives of the victims have decried as political interference.

Human Rights Watch last year accused top officials in government, parliament and the country's security agencies of deadly negligence that led to the tragedy.