Substandard Ships in Lebanon
Three years since the Beirut port tragedy, vessels with major deficiencies continue to enter and leave Lebanese ports unhindered amid ongoing political interference in the blast investigation.
Hello there, Noam here.
Today I’m sharing a piece published earlier this month by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy where I’m currently a senior fellow. Some of the early subscribers to THE CHOKEPOINT probably remember that in the first post I published last year [investigative work] I brought attention to substandard ships calling at Lebanese ports with severe deficiencies. An example of such vessels is the Moldova-flagged cargo ship Rhosus that docked in Beirut in November 2013 laden with 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate. The issue of substandard ships in Lebanon is a serious problem I have been following since 2020. Three years since the Beirut port tragedy, various sources indicate that vessels with major deficiencies continue to enter and leave Lebanese ports unhindered amid ongoing political interference in the blast investigation.
Lebanon’s devastating port explosion highlighted the many risks posed by substandard shipping in the Mediterranean and abroad. When the cargo ship Rhosus arrived in Beirut in November 2013 laden with 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, its machinery and hull bore severe deficiencies. If Lebanon had strong maritime regulations and the capacity to detain substandard ships, it would have dealt with Rhosus months before the vessel sailed to the capital with its highly explosive cargo. One opportunity to do so came in June 2013, when the vessel called at the port of Saida in southern Lebanon and was found with seventeen deficiencies, including detainable defects related to its engines.
Click here to read the full report published by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The work carries an analysis of five general cargo ships whose cases were chosen from a larger pool of substandard vessels based on the severity of their deficiencies, their record of detentions, and their involvement in illicit activities. The information was compiled from the shipping database Equasis, local sources, vessel data from MarineTraffic, and information from the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (Paris MoU).
Since last year, I have been highlighting the problem of substandard ships in Lebanon on the anniversary of the Beirut port explosion. That’s been my own way to remind readers of the extraordinary corruption eating away at Lebanon.
Many Lebanese find it torturously difficult to avoid some photos and videos of the port blast that are recklessly posted on social media. Every year, the anniversary grows more painful, and in my opinion, a few people have been able to address the tragedy carefully in their work. For this reason, I take this opportunity to share the work of two genuine artists, Prokop Boutan and Balsam Abo Zour: Beirut in the Air (A City Levitating). You can listen to the song written and sincerely delivered by Prokop, and watch the sharp video meticulously created by Balsam below.
Thank you for reading today’s post and until next week.