Jumblat urges for protecting silos as 'blast memorial'

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat suggested Thursday to protect the Beirut port wheat silos as a memorial for the tragic blast.

He called for the removal of the wheat from the silos in the port of Beirut and for building new silos in Tripoli, adding that "playing with the feelings of the victims' families" must stop.

Jumblat slammed authorities for "selling the port to (French shipping giant CMA CGM CEO Rodolphe) Saadeh at a low price."

"We ask Saadeh and his partners to build new silos in the port of Tripoli for preserving wheat," Jumblat said.

Saade had visited Beirut with French President Emmanuel Macron in the wake of the blast, and offered a plan to reconstruct the entire Beirut port in less than three years.

His company, CMA CGM -- the third largest shipping company in the world -- had won in February a 10-year contract to run the container terminal at Beirut port. It also manages several investment portfolios in Lebanon, and operates the container terminal at the Tripoli port, the country's second largest.