This past week, Maj.-Gen. Ashraf Rifi, a former justice minister and retired commander of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces, testified before an investigative committee that it was Iran who had shipped into Beirut the massive amounts of ammonium nitrate, causing the explosion at the Lebanese Port this past summer.

As many suspected from the onset, the general is alleging that the Iranian proxy terrorist group Hezbollah played a central role in this devastating explosion.

While Hezbollah, for its part, is undertaking every measure it can to thwart the investigation, including bringing lawsuits and threats against those in Beirut who accuse the Shi’ite organization of any involvement, Maj.-Gen. Rifi is insisting his full testimony be made public.

The Lebanese people, the foreign citizens killed in the blast, the United Nations, the International Criminal Court and every shipping company that utilizes the Port of Beruit deserve to finally learn the truth.

The backstory is this: On Aug. 4, 2020, Lebanon was rocked when a warehouse, storing large amounts of the chemical ammonium nitrate, exploded at Beirut's port.

That blast was the cause of horrific amounts of destruction, killing scores of people and destroying buildings in a large radius.

This is a horrible tragedy, and it left more than 150 Lebanese dead, while thousands more were wounded. The explosion and resultant devastation was the result of massive and unauthorized stockpiling of dangerous explosives at what is a civilian harbor.

The Beirut Port explosion so angered the Lebanese population that they immediately launched days of violent protests in the streets, demanding an international investigation.

Many pointed a finger at Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a likely suspect.

Afterall, Hezbollah has repeatedly been tied to bombings and attempted bombings globally --- using the exact same explosive chemicals:

The July 18, 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish Center killing 85 and wounded more than 300 was carried out by Hezbollah.

The terror group packed a van with 600 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel; drove it to the Jewish Center were it was detonated a little before 10 am on that day. 

In the 2012 in Burgas, Bulgaria the bombing of Israeli tourists on a bus was carried out by Hezbollah delpoying 40 boxes containing 160 grams of ammonium nitrate each.

Law enforcement pointed the finger at the Lebanese terrorist group as the culprits.

Five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian bus driver perished in the attack.

In 2013-2014, Iran supplied Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group with 670 tons of ammonium nitrate according to the German daily Die Welt. German officials claimed that Hezbollah had secretly stored large quantities of the chemical in civilian towns in Southern Germany and then shipped the explosives throughout Europe for future terror attacks.

In 2015, authorities seized over three-metric-tons of ammonium nitrate stored in London at a Hezbollah warehouse and the same year over eight tons that were guarded by a Hezbollah operative in Cyprus.

Hezbollah has been tied to numerous other warehouses of ammonium nitrate illegally stockpiled globally --- including in Kuwait and Thailand.

According to a statement by Maj.-Gen. Rifi: "Large quantities of ammonium nitrate were designated for the Syrian regime, while other large shipments were sent by Hezbollah to its affiliated terrorist groups in Cyprus, Kuwait, Germany and other foreign countries.

The security forces know that Hezbollah controls the Beirut port for smuggling and exporting explosives, and that's why the organization established a private security and customs area in the port."

In the aftermath of the August explosion as reports of Hezbollah’s involvement began to spread, a undocumented story circulated in the media globally that the chemicals were brought to Lebanon in September 2013 on a Moldovan-flagged cargo ship MV Rhosus from Mozambique.

Supposedly, the ship developed engine trouble and was forced, along with its dangerous cargo, to dock in the Beirut Port.

The MV Rhosus was deemed unseaworthy and the ship was prohibited from sailing.

The company that purported to own the ship eventually went bankrupt and Lebanese officials seized the boat for unpaid and overdue port costs.

The chemicals were reportedly off-loaded and stored in February of 2014 at Warehouse 12.

They remained there until this summer’s explosion.

In the wake of the explosion the government of Lebanon fell and an investigative committee was appointed to discover the truth behind the blast.

Lebanese civilians are still publicly demanding the truth be revealed.

The testimony of Maj.-Gen Rifi, given last week, calls the story of the abandoned ship, the MV Rhosus, a lie and points an accusing finger at the Iranian proxy group.

Hezbollah’s long history of terrorism utilizing ammonium nitrate and the fact it controls large sections of the Beirut's port (including many warehouses) supports the allegations against the Iranian proxy group.

The investigative committee in Lebanon, a country where the assassination of the late president Rafic Hariri in 2005, in yet another Hezbollah terrorist attack, has never been properly investigated and the conclusions made public, cannot continue to operate behind closed doors and the withhold testimon from public disclosure.

The truth behind the Beirut port explosion which leveled whole sections of the city cannot be covered up and buried like the Hariri inquest, and so remains to this day. 

Maj.-Gen. Rifi and other credible witnesses who have crucial information and evidence must be allowed to present their knowledge to the media --- and the poeple of Lebanon.

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner is an attorney and the president of the Shurat HaDin Law Center in Tel Aviv.