Hezbollah chief looks to hamper Beirut blast probe: report

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is looking to hamper the probe into the deadly blast in Beirut, Israel Hayom reported Monday, citing a Lebanese opposition site.

According to Al-Janoubia, as cited by the newspaper, Nasrallah had an arrangement with Lebanon's President Michel Aoun to blame the explosion, which has killed at least 180 people, on Israel.

Gebran Basil, head of Free Patriotic Movement, a party largely backed by Lebanese Christians, was also allegedly involved in the accord, as per unnamed sources cited by the website.

In his last week's speech, Nasrallah urged the whole Lebanon to respond if Israel was to be found involved in the blast -- a prospect rejected by both Jerusalem and pro-Hezbollah sources in the immediate aftermath of the blast.

In the meantime, on Monday, Lebanese media reported that  Badri Daher, the chief of the country's customs authority, was formally arrested after questioning.

Earlier, on Sunday, a nine-member FBI team arrived in Beirut to assist the authorities with investigating the blast, which left thousands wounded and hundreds of thousands homeless in its immediate wake.

The August 4  blast was caused by some 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, a chemical substance used in agriculture and bomb-making that had been stored for years in the Beirut port after its seizure in 2014.

Some of the previous reports suggested that one of the reasons it had not been disposed of was because of Hezbollah's tapping into it to make weapons.