Lebanon’s government resigned Monday as protester outrage continued to rise following the massive double explosion that nearly flattened a major portion of the country’s capital city, killing at least 157 citizens, injuring nearly 6,000 and leaving some 300,000 more homeless.
Barely a week after the hazy white mushroom cloud rose into the sky above the Port of Beirut, Health Minister Hamad Hassan told reporters, “The whole government has resigned,” after the day’s Cabinet meeting. He added that his colleagues had quit not as an escape, but as a way to help.
“We resigned as a responsibility,” Hassan said, “and not an escape from it.”
Hassan then said the prime minister will go to President Michel Aoun at the presidential palace to formally “hand over the resignation in the name of all the ministers.” Diab is set to deliver remarks to the nation Monday evening.
The resignations began last week, on Saturday. By the end of the weekend, two ministers and six members of parliament had left the government and a third minister was contemplating doing the same. Under the current law, these Cabinet members will now continue to serve as a caretaker government until the next government is formed.