Iran warns countries not to meddle with Lebanon as FBI offers help in Beirut blast probe

Only the Lebanese people and their representatives can decide the country's future, Iran's foreign minister said on a visit to Beirut on Friday, following the massive blast at the city's port that killed 172 people and prompted the government to resign.

Iran backs Lebanon's powerful armed movement Hezbollah, which along with its allies helped form the outgoing government. The United States classifies Hezbollah as a terrorist group.

Mohammed Javad Zarif was speaking after senior U.S. and French officials met President Michel Aoun in a flurry of Western diplomacy that has focused on urging Lebanon to fight entrenched corruption and enact long-delayed reforms to unlock foreign financial aid needed to tackle an economic crisis.

"It is not humane to exploit the pain and suffering of the people for political goals," Iran's Zarif told a joint news conference with Lebanon's caretaker foreign minister.

"We believe that the government and the people of Lebanon should decide on the future of Lebanon."

FBI offers 'investigative assistance' 

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on Friday confirmed that it will assist authorities in Lebanon investigating the cause of the explosion.

"At the request of the Government of Lebanon, the FBI will be providing our Lebanese partners investigative assistance in their investigation into the explosions at the Port of Beirut on August 4th," FBI headquarters said in a statement to Reuters.

"As this is not an FBI investigation, the FBI will not offer additional comment at this time. Further questions should be directed to the Lebanese authorities as the lead investigators," the FBI added.

A law enforcement official said that the FBI could not provide details about what specific kind of assistance the bureau would provide and whether FBI personnel were already on their way to Beirut.

U.S. government agencies have not publicly released any statements or materials indicating the view of U.S. investigators and spy agencies on the causes of the blast.

However, U.S. government sources have privately said that based on the evidence presently available, U.S. agencies believe that the explosion at the hangar, where large quantities of potentially volatile ammonium nitrate were stored, was most likely an accident.

They continue to collect data, however, and are still considering the possibility that the explosion could have been some kind of deliberate attack, the sources said.

'The West has to pressure our leaders'

Lebanese people had been staging angry protests against a political elite blamed for the country's many woes even before the Aug 4. blast, which injured 6,000, damaged swathes of the Mediterranean city and left 300,000 homeless. Some 30 people remain missing.

The explosion sharply deepened anger at the authorities.

"We can't live like this. The West has to pressure our leaders to save us," said Iyaam Ghanem, a Beirut pharmacist.

WATCH | Lebanon's government resigns in wake of Beirut blast, protests:

U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale and French Defence Minister Florence Parly met separately with Aoun on Friday.

In televised remarks, Parly later called for the formation of a government capable of making "courageous decisions."

Foreign aid, but with demands

Hale said on Thursday the FBI would join a probe into the blast at a hangar in the port where highly explosive material detonated in a mushroom cloud. Hale called for an end to "dysfunctional governments and empty promises."

International humanitarian aid has poured in, but foreign states have linked any financial assistance to reform of the Lebanese state, which has defaulted on its huge sovereign debts.

WATCH l Canadian citizen the youngest known casualty:

Zarif said Tehran and private Iranian companies were ready to help with reconstruction and rehabilitating Lebanon's electricity sector, which is a chief target of reform.

France's navy helicopter carrier Tonnerre docked at the port, where authorities say more than 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate had been stored for years without safety measures.

Aoun told Hale that Beirut needed help to "understand the circumstances" under which the nitrate shipment was brought into the port and unloaded, an official statement said.

Aoun has said the probe would look into whether the cause was negligence, an accident or "external interference."

Victims and their representatives told reporters that only an independent probe would deliver justice, appealing to the United Nations Security Council for an international investigation and the referral of the blast to an international court.

"Is it acceptable that people find their homes shattered, their families killed, their hopes and their dreams killed, with no justice," asked Paul Naggear, whose three-year-old daughter, Alexandra, died in the blast

Aoun has rejected calls for an external probe.

State news agency NNA said questioning of some ministers due to take place on Friday had been postponed as the judge appointed for the task said he did not have authority to question government ministers.

The cabinet resignation has fuelled uncertainty. Agreement on a new government will likely be very difficult in a country with deep factional rifts and a sectarian power-sharing system.

Senior Christian cleric Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, who has called for keeping Beirut out of regional conflicts, said on Thursday that a new Lebanon was being "cooked in kitchens" of foreign countries, which he did not name, to serve the interest of politicians.