Overview

• Judge Bitar has finished questioning key figures, including former Prime Minister Hassan Diab, and has sent information requests to several Arab and European states before sending the dossier to prosecutors
• President Joseph Aoun declared August 4 a national day of mourning and pledged that no high-ranking official would escape accountability
• Culture Minister Ghassan Salamé added the blast-damaged grain silos at Beirut port to Lebanon’s register of historic monuments and initiated plans to preserve them as a memorial
• Victims’ families and international NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International continue to press for a fully transparent investigation and have urged an international inquiry that Lebanon has declined
• After being halted in January 2023 by political challenges and legal actions against the judge, the investigation resumed in early 2025 following a shift in power dynamics post-Israel-Hezbollah conflict