this would happen away from that, perhaps fortuitously, but that was the assassination of rafic haririhariri back into thousand and five. —— in 2005. this week on friday sees the verdict being given in the trial of those involved in his murder, all of those involved in his murder, all of them linked to hezbollah, so there have been more tensions growing over that. 0bviously obviously this will remind people of that and people will say, is it related to it? everything will be going through people's mines, what could be the cause, who could gain from this, who would want to do this, but my first reaction to something of this level at this moment in beirut is raising the sta kes so moment in beirut is raising the stakes so immensely that you cannot think ofan stakes so immensely that you cannot think of an actor at the moment who would be willing or want to take that kind of a risk. as you were saying, the reports at the moment from official sources, the health ministry being one, that he could've been a fireworks factory. the issue with that is when you look at the pictures, obviously th

this would happen away from that, perhaps fortuitously, but that was the assassination of rafic hariris week on friday sees the verdict being given in the trial of those involved in his murder, all of them linked to hezbollah, so there have been more tensions growing over that. obviously this will remind people of that and people will say, is it related to it? everything will be going through people's mines, what could be the cause, who could gain from this, who would want to do this, but my first reaction to something of this level at this moment in beirut is raising the stakes so immensely that you cannot think of an actor at the moment who would be willing or want to take that kind of a risk. as you were saying, the reports at the moment from official sources, the health ministry being one, that he could've been a fireworks factory. the issue with that is when you look at the pictures, obviously that is what people doing everywhere, in beirut particularly, explosion of this nature, almost unparalleled, it is an odd kind of explosion and it's a shock wave which happens. who knows wha

the killing of rafic hariri, a sunni muslim leader who was close to the u.s. arab states, upended the delicate sectarian balance in lebanon among sunni, shia, christians, and druze. hariri had been pushing for the syrian regime, then occupying the country, to stop interfering in lebanese politics, and for hezbollah and all other militias to be disarmed. hezbollah is a shia force formed and funded by iran. the u.s. has designated it a terrorist organization. the verdict doesn't directlyim icate hezbollah, but the court of public opinion in lebanon finds at implausible he group did not order the bombing. and the rults of the inquiry come at time when pressure on hezbollah is growing. the masse explosion that pped through beirut earlier this month, destroying a huge part of the city and killing some 200 people, led towidespree country's political elites, blamed for the mismanagement and decay that led to much explosive material being left idle. effigies of political leaders, including srallah, were hung from a central square in beiruin somelebanon has never seen

dr firass abiad is the head of the rafic hariri university hospital in beirut.ppreciate your time at such a busy time for you. first of all, for our viewers, was the hospital damaged in the blast? we had some material damage but nothing that stopped us from continuing with our regular operations. regular operations you say but this is far from regular. how under pressure is the hospital and your colleagues right now? the night of the explosion, we suddenly had tonnes of casualties arriving on our emergency department, with all sorts of injuries, whether it is from last injuries, crashing injuries, things falling on them or flying in the air and then more serious casualties from the scene of the blast itself. at the same time, as the reference hospital for the covid patients, we were receiving covid patients, we were receiving covid patients, we were receiving covid patients as we are in the midst of a second wave here in lebanon and a number of cases is rising. now one of the unfortunate thing is that also happened as a couple of hospitals in beirut were damaged

also brings back memories of a previous explosion back in 2005 when the former prime minister rafic haririsive car bomb. elderly residents here and older residents here, that immediately brings back that kind of traumatic memories. that was lizzie porter from that was lizzie porterfrom beirut. let's bring you life pictures from the lebanese capital. you can see the lebanese capital. you can see the fire in the industrial area. you canjust the fire in the industrial area. you can just about here some sirens there, suggesting that the emergency relief effort, there's a closer shot of it there, will take some time to conclude. it is worth saying that the lebanese president is calling a meeting of, an urgent meeting, of the defence counsel as investigations go on as to the cause of that explosion and we will review any political updates from lebanon as soon as we get them —— the defence council. i heard from eyewitness hadi nasrallah earlier in that i heard from eyewitness hadi nasrallah earlier. you heard a little bit of him in that report from james robbins. he lives close to where the blast