Lebanon (SONNA-)-Lebanon’s prime minister Hassan Diab announced his government’s resignation Monday amid popular outrage over the deadly Beirut port explosion that has reignited angry street protests.
The collapse of his government had looked inevitable after a string of resignations and a cabinet meeting during which several cabinet members made it clear they would also quit.
Diab’s announcement came even as security forces in central Beirut clashed again with protesters demanding an end to an entrenched political system widely seen as inept, corrupt and dominated by sectarian interests and family dynasties.
“I announce the resignation of the government,” he said at the end of a speech in which he strove to cast himself as an external victim of a corrupt and selfish political leadership.
According to the health ministry, at least 160 people were killed in Lebanon’s worst peacetime disaster, 6,000 were wounded and about 20 remained missing after the disaster blamed on official negligence.
