The alleged port was classified as "cultural heritage" by the previous minister Salim Wardeh and his scientific committee including Laure Salloum, Anis Chaya, Nadine Panayot and Assaad Seif based on Sayegh's report.

The claim that the site was a port was disputed by a new scientific committee of archaeologists appointed by Layoun including Hassan Salame Sarkis, Albert Naccache and Samir Chami based on reports of Hanz Curver (who initially supported Sageyh's findings, then reversed his opinion) and Ralph Pedersen a research associate of the institute of Nautical Archaeology and now teaching at Marburg in Germany.

[8][10][11] Hisham Sayegh's contract with the Ministry was not renewed and on 27 June he claimed to have resigned in a letter that accused Venus Towers of attempted bribery to falsify scientific information.

"I refused with previous culture ministers bribes that have been generously offered by the Venus company, the owner of the land so that we would agree to falsify scientific truth and divert the origin and significance of this discovery at the heart of the capital Beirut".

"[6][7] Based on the information of Sayegh, in a letter dated April 2011, Assaad Seif, coordinator of archaeological research and excavations in Lebanon at the Directorate General of Antiquities endorsed the discovery and called for the protection of the area, suggesting provision of fair compensation to the construction firm.

Another lead activist, Giorgio Tarraf, spokesman for Save Beirut Heritage expressed his horror at the speed and extent of the demolition, interviewed by Al Akhbar (Lebanon), he said "They (government) were talking about some sort of mitigation approach where they move the stones and preserve them in a way that would be leave room for development.

The firm was fined 500,000 Lebanese pounds and its managing director Mohammed Kassem admitted the expiry of their license along with confirming his opinion that there was no evidence of the presence of ship building or a port on his land.

[9] The destruction of archaeological site BEY194 took place two days prior to the publication of Minister Layoun's decision in the official Gazette, leading to claims that he acted in violation of Lebanese law and setting a concerning precedent for similar actions in future.

Most importantly, the bottoms of the trenches were not a smooth slope that is required for hauling ships up and down- there were short inclines of about 8 to 9 meters long, steps, level areas, and even a part that exhibited a slight reverse pitch.