In a national address, Christofias said his government shared the “disappointment, bitterness and even anger” of a public which is furious at how a confiscated cargo of Iranian ammunition triggered Cyprus’s worst peacetime disaster.
The blast which took place on Monday has posed the most difficult challenge of Christofias’s three-year presidency and triggered unprecedented street protests.
“It is the demand of all that responsibilities are identified and attributed, whatever those may be, from the lowest to the highest level,” Christofias said, in his first public appearance since the blast which has drawn calls from protesters for his resignation.
“We will ... await the results of the inquiry and then, accordingly, we will address the people again,” he said.
Christofias said his government offered its condolences to the victims’ families but stopped short of issuing an apology that some had expected. The defense minister and army chief resigned after the incident.
The munitions, confiscated by Cyprus from a ship sailing from Iran to Syria in 2009 for violating UN sanctions, had been stored in scorching temperatures in an open field next to a 700-million-euro power station. The station was destroyed, knocking out more than 50 percent of Cyprus’s power supply.
Official documents have shown army officers had expressed concerns in the past about storage conditions of the cargo, but were ignored. The presidency has repeatedly denied it was aware of deteriorating storage conditions at the army base.
A communist, Christofias has been under pressure, even from his coalition partners, for being slow to address economic problems, and for controversial reunification proposals on the island, ethnically split between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
Thousands marched through the capital Nicosia on Tuesday, with some calling for Christofias to resign. The protest turned violent when a group of nationalists pelted the presidential compound with stones, and police used teargas on the crowds.
“Nobody can be turned into a judge and juror,” Christofias said. He compared the protests, which he said “tried to burn the presidential palace” to nationalist actions which toppled Cyprus’s government in 1974, triggering a Turkish invasion.
“Whoever the president may be, the Presidential Palace cannot be a target,” he said.
