Huge Explosion in Beirut (capital of Lebanon)

[Lexicus]

Anyone have an idea why they were packing this dangerous cargo on a city dock rather than letting sink with the ship?

https://stableseas.org/blue-economy...Fv4EGrB0OvYKabvhsQVEa_SXiJSnE5Idd5Py-EcCXch1o

The 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that detonated on Tuesday can be traced back to the Rhosus, which called into the Port of Beirut on September 23, 2013 after experiencing technical difficulties. The ship, sailing under a Moldovan flag, was en route from Georgia to Mozambique. Once in port, the Rhosus underwent an inspection by Port State Control technicians who found significant deficiencies and banned it from resuming operations.



The Rhosus. Image Source: https://www.balticshipping.com/vessel/imo/8630344#gallery-2

The majority of the ship's crew were repatriated, but the captain and three of the crew members were forced to stay aboard. Unfortunately, their situation would continue to deteriorate as all attempts to contact the owner of the ship failed to elicit a response. Further complicating matters were immigration regulations that prevented the crew from even deboarding the ship.

With the crew unable to deboard, and with no incoming supplies or provisions, the situation aboard the Rhosus quickly became a humanitarian issue which even diplomatic efforts failed to resolve. Eventually, the crew contacted legal professionals who successfully argued that the crews’ lives were threatened not only by their stranding, but also due to the dangerous nature of the cargo. The crew received an emergency injunction from the judge, and shortly thereafter left Beirut.

After the departure of the Rhosus’ crew, and the continued silence of its owner, the Port Authority was left with responsibility over the highly explosive contents of the ship. Although currently unsubstantiated, it is possible that legal claims prevented the auctioning of the ammonium nitrates which were left on land storage as the only avenue for the safekeeping of the material. At some point between July 2014 and October 2015, the ammonium nitrate was moved to a warehouse where, ostensibly, it remained until the catastrophic explosion.

 

[Reconciliator]

The video is isnane! i can't imagine how this must have felt like to witness!!!

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Moderator Action: I have had to delete a number of silly and off topic posts, if you are wondering why your post is gone, it either did not make any sense, or it quoted the nonsense post. Please stay on topic.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[amadeus]

And here I thought the cargo would be rerouted because Turkey is next to Lebanon.

 

[r16]

cyprus is closer . Also fits in with Hizbullah opposing because people have been killed on both sides in the name of Sunni glory , Lebanese Christians because whatever Macron says and you would think he is trying to arrange a Crusade to invade Ankara . Sunnis because they alternate between Saudi dollars and Qatari dollars and New Turkey offers citizenship to get boots on the ground because they think they need a war , to remain in power to pay London and yes , we are actually seeing posts in places reminding how unstable Libya has been after Kaddafi was killed in that way and the same would happen here if the PM left . Despite they are allied to the people who ended Kaddafi that way . Yes , citizenship because that's how they assembled an all conquering Syrian jihadist army to conquer Libya or something .

 

[amadeus]

cyprus is closer

True, but it’s a rougher ride for the truckers.

 

[Hrothbern]

The explosion crater is 43 meter deep

 

[Kyriakos]

stuff

I think you should really take a break from this... A reminder: regardless of what happens in that other, off topic issue, it won't be influenced by whether you make 1911 posts about it or not

 

[r16]

True, but it’s a rougher ride for the truckers.

would agree , except the Mersin proposal specifically involves smaller ships , which would still be cheaper than trucking them overland from Hatay-Syria-Lebanon . ln case Damascus lets the trucks pass . Do you think they will ? Hatay-Occupied Syria-Jordan or maybe lsrael then ? Wait , does Jordan border Lebanon ?

and even this has a New Turkey angle , because nobody would doubt who would share the contracts ... Shipping companies belonging to the son of the PM and the son of the Last Prime Minister .

 

[r16]

have issues with the tablet like forever , so this appears as a different post

I think you should really take a break from this... A reminder: regardless of what happens in that other, off topic issue, it won't be influenced by whether you make 1911 posts about it or not

translated as that the poster does not believe r16 phenomenon involves silly stuff like unstoppable force and unmoveable object or whatever . ı don't know whether they are prepositions or whatever but people will get the idea . And reminds we were like once defeated in Libya , some campaign starting in 1911 . Things become easier to understand if one has the context / background and stuff . Well , this certainly requires a cultured answer . So , this Japanese guy has a movie , where the thief breaks into the castle and discovers the recently deceased daimyo or lord marinating in some barrel or a pot . As the thing would have it , the thief also very much resembles the guy in samurai armour . So , the retainers , instead of cutting him into hundred pieces , slashing katanas and all , fit the thief in samurai armour , seat him on a thing and give him some fly-chaser or whatever it is called and doesn't the thief win battles , with the cool calmness the lord was famous for ! This is the power of inaction ...

and be my guest in remembering how it ends ugly and all , so that ı can get to bring one , just one ship into orbit and see how calm all those will remain .

 

[Kyriakos]

I am just saying that you risk getting your own self blown away to perpetual orbit, and not near any planet which would care about goings-on in Earth

 

[r16]

ı really have been sitting on my backside since 2011 when we were told Europe was playing the same game after a full century . Yours did not show up for a replay of the Balkan Wars in '12 , this forum really heard it from me that it was delayed , first to 14 and then 17 . Though Bush lll didn't show up and Trump as the mighty glorius BSS limited it to a cruise missile strike on Syria , over in minutes . No division of yours yet , in my province to replay the lnönü battles , and a rapidly failing feeling that you will manage to show up for next year or for the year after that . Despite New Turkey's never stopping PR campaigns to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Republic . For those not aware , these rubbish sentences are a reference to the Greek Disaster of Asia Minor or whatever when all they finally achieved was their own Goverment requesting every single person of Greek ethnicity to be expelled from the said Asia Minor . Yes , because am a more-on (because ı know the word is autocensored in CFC) does not make everything ı say automatically wrong . Because the West knew who would run the country , namely Mustafa Kemal and he might have married some French woman or whatever and yet he was none of those post colonial wonders that sprouted up in the world as European empires crumbled , and he would want a multi-party and like multi-ethnic Republic and the way it would "flourish" be some insult to West . ı regularly get called that ı spam , because it kinda stays in the air , without the background . Removing all the Greeks and specifically targeting Orthodox Turks (you know Roman citizens that took the language but not the full culture after 1071) a lot of leeway was created for an eventual (and typically British led) Crusade to topple this abomination through an lslamist Trojan Horse . r16 is Hanefi Sunni , thanks for asking ... And yes , am pretty sure Kyriakos would vote A-K-P , if he had the vote here .

the entire 100 year thing is also based on lslamic traditions , namely a "corrector" Will Be Sent every century by Allah , to fix things . lt is like an awful joke , ı will say and agree as well , but the hard drinking womanizing Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the Republic was a lot of things . All those garbage you hear in the West kinda happens because the West lost some traction in the oft mentioned 1920s . You know , nobody could come to teach the devilish sources of Mahometanism to masses , considering Adolf Hitler and Ludendorff were "fans" of Kemal as they were trying to putsch their way to power . Stuff , stuff , ı will really write some weird history of the 20th century one of these days . Essentially why the West chose Snot , the spiritual leader of the Congregation to believe he was the corrector for this age ... Undoing the Republic , though they are really out of sync with original plans to have Kemal's bones thrown away , you know , just in 3 years time ...

our Greek friend here has watched awesome opportunities for our destruction frittered away senselessly . He hates , even if he is not much a militarist and all the baggage of that kind of feelings , that EU or America or even lsrael find better things to do , when our day of execution comes . This kinda explains the odd feeling about him that you might get , that he is trying to get the attention of the police or the so called national intelligence service of the country of the non-stop betrayals of the country by r16 . Like he might even acquired friends who have noticed the thing in some other forum on how close the UAE and New Turkey were , enough to "attract" investors and like finance UAE's trip to Mars with a promise to build condos there so that people could experience sx in low gravity . Very few of the people who have called me an idiot really know what they themselves are . Yes , ı might send a postcard from Mars tonight , though in preparation for WW llll (because you might feel lucky to have bows and arrows when it happens) the postal ship is coal powered , will probably take a year or two to arrive .

 

[Kyriakos]

I just don't feel like reading about Turkey in every thread. You are overdoing it
Besides, I wouldn't vote AKP if I was in Turkey. TBH I hope I'd emigrate if I was born in Turkey. I'd like to emigrate from here too.
Don't worry, I have read funnier jokes from greek people. Eg some "more-on" as you say, trying to claim that "the most famous person born in Thessalonike was Kemal". Yes, I suppose he is more famous than the creator of the alphabet 1/3 of Europe uses. That's even assuming Kemal was actually born in Thessalonike, instead of a mud-covered village.

 

[r16]

then you can surely give me less rope to hang myself . So , like insulting Kemal so that ı can answer with sone another garbled wall of text ?

 

[EnglishEdward]

The Rhosus. Image Source: https://www.balticshipping.com/vessel/imo/8630344#gallery-2

The majority of the ship's crew were repatriated, but the captain and three of the crew members were forced to stay aboard. Unfortunately, their situation would continue to deteriorate as all attempts to contact the owner of the ship failed to elicit a response. Further complicating matters were immigration regulations that prevented the crew from even deboarding the ship.

With the crew unable to deboard, and with no incoming supplies or provisions, the situation aboard the Rhosus quickly became a humanitarian issue which even diplomatic efforts failed to resolve. Eventually, the crew contacted legal professionals who successfully argued that the crews’ lives were threatened not only by their stranding, but also due to the dangerous nature of the cargo. The crew received an emergency injunction from the judge, and shortly thereafter left Beirut.

After the departure of the Rhosus’ crew, and the continued silence of its owner, the Port Authority was left with responsibility over the highly explosive contents of the ship. Although currently unsubstantiated, it is possible that legal claims prevented the auctioning of the ammonium nitrates which were left on land storage as the only avenue for the safekeeping of the material. At some point between July 2014 and October 2015, the ammonium nitrate was moved to a warehouse where, ostensibly, it remained until the catastrophic explosion.

Thank you for posting this source, Lexicus.

This business about being unable to get a response from the ship's owner sounds remarkably suspicious.
Sunday Times (DTF) commentators seem to reckon that it was a Hezbollah bomb material stockpile. I would not know
if it was intentionally ordered as such, but irrespective of that; that would explain why it was not safely disposed of.
If so, I wouldn't know if its explosion was accidental or due to action by those expecting to be on the receiving end of it.

 

[innonimatu]

This business about being unable to get a response from the ship's owner sounds remarkably suspicious.
Sunday Times (DTF) commentators seem to reckon that it was a Hezbollah bomb material stockpile. I would not know
if it was intentionally ordered as such, but irrespective of that; that would explain why it was not safely disposed of.
If so, I wouldn't know if its explosion was accidental or due to action by those expecting to be on the receiving end of it.

I think they're talking out of their posteriors. The stuff was ordered for delivery in Mozambique, that has been confirmed. And docking in Beirut was accidental. As for not disposing of it, lebanese bureaucracy explains it all: nothing moves without bribes and there was no one distributing bribes to move that out. Finally, the port "belongs" to the sunni factions in Beirut, Hezbollah wouldn't store their weapons or strategic materials there. Certain incompetents in other countries (my own...) do store strategic materials in unfriendly nations, but I don't believe those who really had experience of wars are that foolish.

 

[Hrothbern]

Today was that Lebanon donor video-conference of world leaders.
Euro 250 Million was pledged.

Besides the damage to buildings and port facilities.... the rough estimate to rebuild that part of Beirut being Euro 5-15 Billion...
the decrease in GDP because of the port and nearby area of Beirut not productive, is estimated at an immediate decrease of the GDP with 20-25%, or around Euro 200 Million per week.

 

[sherbz]

Thank you for posting this source, Lexicus.

This business about being unable to get a response from the ship's owner sounds remarkably suspicious.
Sunday Times (DTF) commentators seem to reckon that it was a Hezbollah bomb material stockpile. I would not know
if it was intentionally ordered as such, but irrespective of that; that would explain why it was not safely disposed of.
If so, I wouldn't know if its explosion was accidental or due to action by those expecting to be on the receiving end of it.

Highly doubtful Hizbollah have anything to do with this. Although useful in explosives, ammonium nitrate is not a particularly great candidate to be weaponised. After all, we are talking here of almost 3,000 tonnes of it. I think someone might notice if someone dumped 3,000 tonnes of material somewhere it should not be

 

[Kaitzilla]

Prime Minister of Lebanon Hassan Diab has resigned.

 

[Cutlass]

Normally unloaded carefully with container cranes and dispersed but compromised cargo salvaged from shipwrecks? And stored there for years? Hopefully not sop in more places.

Third world country with notoriously bad government. You can know what a safe procedure is. But if no one is enforcing the rules, then tragedies happen.