Man with $2.5 mn arrested at Beirut Airport

A man was arrested Friday morning at Beirut Airport after $2.5 million were found in his possession.

Beirut airport authorities arrested Mohammad H. who arrived aboard a Turkish Pegasus plane. The young man is being investigated about the source of the money and its destination, amid reports that the cash was destined for Hezbollah.

Israel had claimed that Iranian envoys and Turkish citizens had been smuggling money from Tehran and Istanbul to Beirut.

Lebanese authorities later suspended inbound and outbound flights to Iran indefinitely after the United States, which helped broker a November 27 Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire, warned Lebanon that Israel might shoot the planes down.

The move prompted protests from supporters of Hezbollah, who blocked the road to the country's only international airport, while Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said the government's decision to halt flights from Iran was "implementing an Israeli order."