#Pompeo, Trump pledge to support Beirut after deadly warehouse explosion

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated President Trump’s pledge that the US stands ready to help Lebanon after a major warehouse blast left at least 100 dead and 300,000 homeless.

In a statement released Tuesday, the nation’s top diplomat began by offering his sympathies in the wake of the tragedy.

“I’d like to extend my deepest condolences to all those affected by the massive explosion at the port of Beirut today. We are closely monitoring and stand ready to assist the people of Lebanon as they recover from this tragedy,” Pompeo said.

“Our team in Beirut has reported to me the extensive damage to a city and a people that I hold dear, an additional challenge in a time of already deep crisis. We understand that the Government of Lebanon continues to investigate its cause and look forward to the outcome of those efforts,” the secretary of state continued.

Pompeo’s statement, which did not elaborate on how the US would assist the Lebanese government, came within hours of President Trump commenting on the disaster.

Speaking to reporters during a White House coronavirus briefing Tuesday, the commander-in-chief pledged US support for the country in its time of need.

“Our prayers go out to all the victims and their families. The United States stands ready to assist Lebanon,” Trump said, adding that, “It looks like a terrible attack.”

The cause of the explosion is still under investigation but is believed to have been caused by 2,700 tons of fertilizer that had been stored in a Beirut-based warehouse since it was confiscated sometime around 2013 or 2014.

That fertilizer is believed to have contained ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive material.

Asked by reporters during that same briefing why he called it an “explosion” instead of an accident, Trump explained that he had been receiving information from his military generals who believed it may have been an attack.

“It would seem like it based on the explosion. I met with some of our great generals and they just seem to feel that it was. This was not a — some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of an event,” he said, “They seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind, yes.”

With Post Wires