Lebanon President Michel Aoun on Friday said that the Beirut port blast was caused either by ‘negligence or a missile attack’. Aoun rejected widespread calls for an international probe into the explosions. The blasts in the capital city of Lebanon on Tuesday has killed more than 150 people and wounded at least 5,000.

The reason for the two massive blasts could have been “negligence or foreign interference through a missile or bomb,” Michel Aoun told reporters. 

It was the first acknowledgement by a Lebanese official of the possibility that Tuesday’s earth-shaking blast may have been caused by an attack. Authorities had said a fire at the port had ignited tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored for years in a warehouse. 

Lebanese nationals, advocacy groups and foreign heads of state had called for an international investigation into the blast to ensure impartiality, but Aoun rejected such an initiative.

When asked by a journalist during a televised interview if he thought an international probe would obscure the truth, the president said “of course”. 

Auon later tweeted, saying, “the goal behind calls for an international investigation into the port issue is to dilute the truth.”

He confirmed that 20 suspects were being interrogated already.