Kuwait ready to rebuild Beirut port's shattered wheat silos

Gulf state helped Lebanon to build them in the 1960s

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Kuwait can rebuild the Beirut port wheat silos following a devastating explosion this month, the Gulf state's ambassador to Lebanon said on Saturday.

Abdel Aal Al Qenaei said the silos were built with a Kuwaiti development fund loan in 1969, which is why the country was keen to help rebuild the vital infrastructure.

In the meantime, he said, Kuwait would "continue providing strategic stocks of wheat for the Lebanese people".

“We decided that the best and most appropriate way to start with the material aid is to rebuild the silos that provide the strategic reserve of wheat for brotherly Lebanon,” Mr Al Qenaei said in an interview with Radio Lebanon.

"The pain of Lebanon is the pain of every Kuwaiti, and we convey our condolences and the condolences of the Kuwaiti government and people to Lebanon, for the victims of this dreadful explosion.

"We wish the injured a speedy recovery and we say to you: Kuwait is always by your side."

The Director General of Kuwait's Ports Authority has said it was ready to help Lebanon restart operations from the port.

An explosion in Beirut's port area on August 4 destroyed the silos that stored the city's wheat supplies and caused widespread damage across the capital.