River allows Beirut develop in the centre (5)

I believe the answer is:

loire

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'river' is the definition.
(Loire River is an example)

'beirut develop in the centre' is the wordplay.
'beirut' becomes 'loi' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'develop' becomes 'brew' (I've seen this in another clue).
'in the centre' says to take the centre.
The centre of 'brew' is 're'.
'loi'+'re'='LOIRE'

'allows' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for loire that I've seen before include "banker" , "River flowing through Tours and Nantes" , "Longest French river" , "French river (Orleans, Tours, Nantes)" , "French department" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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