BEIRUT: The company that bought the ammonium nitrate which exploded in Beirut last August had possible links to two Syrian businessmen under US sanctions for ties to President Bashar al-Assad, according to a report by a Lebanese journalist and London company filings.

Savaro Ltd, the trading firm which procured the chemicals in 2013, shared a London address with companies linked to George Haswani and Imad Khoury, according to the report by documentary film-maker Firas Hatoum, which aired on Lebanon’s al-Jadeed TV station this week.

Haswani, Khoury and his brother Mudalal Khoury have all been sanctioned by Washington for supporting Assad’s war effort. All three are joint Syrian-Russian nationals, according to the US sanctions list and a database that gathers data from official Russian institutions.

The US Treasury accused Mudalal Khoury in 2015 of “an attempted procurement of ammonium nitrate in late 2013”. It sanctioned his brother Imad a year later for engaging in business activities with Mudalal. Haswani was sanctioned in 2015 on charges of helping Assad’s government to buy oil from IS militants, which he has denied.

In reviewing filings with Companies House, the UK’s companies registry, this news agency found that Savaro and Hesco Engineering and Construction Company Ltd, a firm subject to US sanctions for its links to Haswani, both moved their corporate registers — official company records — to the same London address on June 25, 2011.

That address was also the registered office for IK Petroleum Industrial Company Ltd, in which Imad Khoury was a director, the filings show.

Dozens of companies can share listed addresses and such links do not necessarily prove company owners are connected. But it is rare for firms to move their registers, particularly to the same address on the same day, according to a review of filings by hundreds of companies.

The Beirut blast killed 200 people, injured thousands and destroyed entire neighbourhoods. Officials have said the chemicals went up in flames after being stored at the port in poor conditions for years.The ammonium nitrate was loaded onto a ship called the Rhosus in Georgia, shipping records show, before making an unscheduled stop in Lebanon in late 2013. It never left, becoming tangled in a legal dispute. The Mozambican firm that ordered the nitrate, FEM, has said it ordered the shipment through Savaro Ltd.

This news agency located the agent which had helped register Hesco, but it did not respond to attempts to seek comment about Hesco’s relationship with Savaro. Imad Khoury denied links to Savaro. “There is a registrar in London, many companies are registered by it, not just mine,” he said. “I don’t know this Savaro.” Mudalal Khoury said there was “no logic” behind laying blame for the Beirut explosion on a company registered at a London address where many others are also registered.

The findings about the possible links between Savaro and the Syrian businessmen have raised questions among some in Beirut over whether the ammonium nitrate, which is used for fertilizer but also explosives, may have been destined for Syria.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2021