Iraq announced Thursday it will create an inventory of all hazardous materials at ports and airports after the ignition of ammonium nitrate fertiliser at a portside warehouse levelled swathes of Beirut.
An emergency committee chaired by the head of Iraq’s border company said he had been commissioned to wear out the paintings and had given himself 72 hours to complete it.
The goal is to “avoid any repetition of what happened in Lebanon” in Iraq, the panel said.
The large explosion that caused great destruction in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday caused 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer stored in the city’s harbor for years.
A security official said, under anonymity, that ammonium nitrate arrived in Lebanon in 2013 aboard a Moldovan-flagged shipment to Georgia for Mozambique.
The port government unloaded the ammonium nitrate and stored it in a ruined warehouse with cracks in the walls, several security said.
Security forces conducted an investigation in 2019 after the warehouse allegedly began smelling and concluded that “dangerous” chemicals deserve to be disposed of, but no action was taken.
The revelations provoked fury in Lebanon that so much ammonium nitrate can be stored for so long in the center of the capital.
The position of Lebanese political elegance is already at its lowest point after months of mass protests opposed to the mismanagement of the deeply indebted economy, before the social estrangement associated with the coronavirus pandemic gave the status quo a respite.
Iraq has also noticed mass protests in the following year opposed to a political formula based on denominational quotas that is corrupt and incompetent.
The dizzying summer heat in Iraq makes it even more vulnerable to the danger of accidental explosions of poorly stored hazardous materials.
Accidental ignition of ammunition stored in residential spaces has caused fatal explosions in Iraq in the past, such incidents have largely been attributed to war prices.
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