Former Economy Minister Raoul Nehme broke into tears on TV on Tuesday as he remembered the victims of the August 4th Beirut Port Explosion.
Nehme’s emotional moment came during the ceremony to hand over his position to the new Economy Minister, Amin Salam.
“We lost nine of our employees and workers in this [Beirut] explosion,” he said while trying to hold back his tears.
“Let us remember them and pray for them. Thank you,” he tearfully added before moving away from the table and continuing to weep away from the microphones.
Minister Salam then moved his seat to the center of the table and continued the handover ceremony.
Nehme was Economy Minister when the deadly port explosion tore through Beirut on the 4th of August, 2020, killing more than 200 people, injuring thousands, and displacing more than 300,000.
The government he was part of, headed by former Prime Minister Hassan Diab, resigned a few days after the horrific incident.
It then took 13 months for Lebanon, which is going through one of the worst economic crises the world has seen since the mid 19th century, to have a new government, a month after the first anniversary of the Beirut Port Explosion.
