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| - Top diplomats criss-crossed Beirut on Friday to supervise growing aid efforts and weigh in on Lebanon's political future, following a deadly port explosion blamed on state corruption. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran, which backs Lebanon's powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah, met officials in the capital ahead of a speech by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah at 1730 GMT. His visit coincided with those of the top career diplomat of Iran's arch-foe the United States, David Hale, and French Defence Minister Florence Parly, who also met Lebanese leaders and civil society representatives. Both Hale and Parly have joined calls from the international community for a reform-oriented government that would coordinate aid flooding into the crisis-hit Mediterranean country after the resignation of Prime Minister Hassan Diab's cabinet on Monday. Zarif said it was for the Lebanese to decide what government they wanted. "Others should not condition their aid on any change in Lebanon during this emergency situation," he said. Zarif echoed Lebanese officials in rejecting an international probe into the blast, saying "Lebanon, as an independent country, must be in charge of the investigation". Protesters filled the streets and clashed with security forces in the days after the August 4 explosion, blaming their political leaders for the negligence they say led to the disaster that killed 171 people and wounded at least 6,500. The blast happened when a huge stock of hazardous materials stocked in a warehouse in the heart of the capital for years exploded, despite repeated warnings of the risk it could cause. The explosion revived a street protest movement that had first erupted in October last year against government corruption and a lingering economic crisis. Hale and Parly met President Michel Aoun separately on Friday and both called for a government that reflects the will of the people and one that would implement reform. Overseeing the distribution of aid from the French helicopter carrier Tonnerre, which docked in Beirut with food and construction materials, Parly said she urged Aoun president to speed up the process of forming a government. Parly said the next government must have a "mission" and "for a limited period of time be in charge of carrying out far-reaching reforms". Hale echoed her calling for a government "that reflects and responds to the will of the people and genuinely commits and acts for real change". Diab's successor must be named by Aoun, the target of increasing vitriol from protesters, after consultations with parliamentary blocs representing Lebanon's longstanding political parties -- the very ones that the protesters want to see gone. Lebanese authorities named judge Fadi Sawan, with a reputation for independence and integrity according to judicial sources, to lead investigations into the explosion. He will not question current and former ministers on the ammonium nitrate that was stocked at the port, but they will be interrogated by a special judicial body. Meanwhile public prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat has filed lawsuits against 25 suspects over the Beirut blast, 19 of whom are already in custody, a judicial source said. Those already detained include Beirut Port General Manager Hassan Koraytem and Badri Daher, director general of Lebanese Customs. On Thursday, Hale said the US Federal Bureau of Investigations would join the probe "at the invitation" of Lebanese authorities. France, which on Friday confirmed that two French citizens were among the 171 people killed in the blast, has opened its own enquiry. UN experts have called for a prompt and independent investigation into the explosion, expressing concern at the "impunity" they say Lebanese officials enjoy. The families of the Beirut blast victims have also called for an international probe -- something rejected by Lebanese authorities. Friday rescue workers continued to recover the remains of those killed in the blast at the devastated Beirut port. Relatives of three firefighters from the same family, who had tried to put out a fire that broke before the blast were told the remains of two of them had been identified by DNA analysis. "I don't have words to describe the fire that consumes us. Imagine getting to the point of being happy to have found the remains of two among you," said Antonella Hitti, after learning that the remains of her brother Najib, 27, and her cousin Charbel, 22, had been identified. lar-at/sw/ho/hkb
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