Lebanon’s Druze leader demands international investigation into Beirut port blast

The leading Druze politician in Lebanon, Walid Jumblatt, called on Thursday for an international probe into the Beirut port explosion. Jumblatt said he had “no trust” in the government to find out the truth about it.

Jumblatt’s party has lawmakers in parliament but is not in the current cabinet, which took office in January with backing from the Hezbollah movement and its allies. If not for the help of foreign states and the Arab region, “Lebanon would disappear,” he said, calling for “a government of neutrality.”

France's President Emmanuel Macron told angry Lebanese crowds in downtown Beirut on Thursday that French aid would not go to “corrupt hands” and he would seek a new deal with political authorities, Reuters reports. Macron was the first foreign leader to visit the Lebanese capital since the explosion on Tuesday.