Lebanon bars Iranian flight from landing in Beirut, stimulating demonstrations

Previously today, Lebanon’s General Directorate of Civil Aviation stated that “extra precaution have actually been executed in line with global requirements and conventions … which has actually caused a momentary readjustment of the schedules of particular flights to Lebanon, consisting of those from Iran, till Feb. 18, 2025.” Feb. 18 is the exact same day the Israeli armed force is set up to withdraw from Lebanon.

Lebanon’s LBCI reported earlier today that Iranian airline companies Mahan Air and Iran Air, the country’s flagship provider, have actually been disallowed from flying into Beirut.

The choice follows accusations by the Israeli armed force that Iran’s Quds Force– a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps– smuggles funds to Hezbollah by means of airplanes reaching the Beirut airport.

The Israeli armed force’s Arabic-language representative, Avichay Adraee, required to X on Wednesday, stating, “The Iranian Quds Force and the terrorist Hezbollah have actually been making use of Beirut worldwide airport flights over the previous couple of weeks in an effort to smuggle funds assigned to equip Hezbollah with the objective of performing attacks versus the State of Israel.”

Adraee included, “We approximate that a few of these cash smuggling efforts have actually prospered.”

Know more: This is not the very first time that stress in between Iran and Lebanese authorities has actually bubbled over at Lebanon’s Beirut airport.

Simply last monthanother Mahan Air flight was flagged and browsed after Lebanese authorities got intelligence that it was providing funds to Hezbollah. A worker at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut was likewise apprehended at the airport after he declined an evaluation of his baggage. His 2 bags were supposedly browsed, and absolutely nothing of suspicion was discovered.

In November, Ali Larijania consultant to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was stopped and browsed at the Beirut airport after he and his delegation declined a bag search. Following the rejection, airport security closed the airport’s gates and avoided the delegation from getting in.

The series of events at the airport becomes part of a bigger schism in between non-Hezbollah-aligned components of Lebanon’s federal government and Hezbollah– and its political backer, Amal– as Hezbollah’s strength in Lebanon subsides following the Israel-Hezbollah war.

In addition, Lebanon’s brand-new president, Joseph Aoun, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam triumphed over Hezbollah-backed prospects Sleiman Frangieh and Najib Mikati. More just recently, Salam’s brand-new cabinet removed Hezbollah of its veto power over the cabinet, which it had actually kept considering that 2008.