Bedminster: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he will join a conference call with Lebanon's president and other world leaders on Sunday to discuss aid to Lebanon in the wake of this week's devastating Beirut port explosion.
Trump said he spoke separately with Lebanese President Michel Aoun and French President Emmanuel Macron, who also will join the call. He said he told Aoun that three large U.S. aircraft were en route to Lebanon to deliver medical supplies, food, water and medical personnel. An explosion in the Lebanese capital's port on Tuesday killed 154 people, injured 5,000 and destroyed a swathe of the city.
France and other countries have rushed emergency aid to Lebanon, including doctors, and tons of health equipment and food. The U.S. Agency for International Development on Friday said it would provide more than $15 million in assistance, including food aid for 50,00 people for three months. It said it had also asked the U.S. military to transport enough medical supplies and pharmaceuticals to support up to 60,000 people for three months.
Senior officials from across the Trump administration have been meeting to hammer out additional assistance, a senior administration source said, adding continued concern about the underlying governance issues plaguing Lebanon. On Thursday, Macron visited Beirut and assured angry crowds that aid to rebuild the city would not go to "corrupt hands". The cause of the blast is being investigated.
Initial Lebanese probes have pointed to an ammonium nitrate cargo, which was abandoned in Beirut, as the source of the blast. President Michel Aoun said on Friday that a Lebanese investigation into the blast would examine whether it was caused by a bomb or other external interference or if it was due to negligence or an accident. U.S. agencies are considering both the possibility that it was a total accident and the possibility that it was somehow deliberately triggered, intelligence sources said.
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