North MPs threaten protests if Qlayaat airport not reopened

The MPs of the northern National Moderation Bloc have given the government two months to give an answer regarding the reopening of the Qlayaat airport – currently a military airbase – to civil aviation.

“We have given the government a two-month deadline. If the answer turns out to be positive, we will salute it, but if it comes out negative, we are preparing for major popular protests,” MP Walid al-Baarini said in an interview with the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper.

“All the political excuses and obstacles that some were launching are no longer justified, especially with the restoration of the Saudi-Iranian-Syrian relations,” Baarini added.

As for Hezbollah’s possible security concerns over the opening of an airport outside the capital, the MP said: “We the MPs of Akkar, Dinniyeh and Minieh have met with our Baalbek-Hermel colleagues in parliament and heard positive stances from them, at least outwardly.”

He added that there will be communication with all MPs in parliament and with the country’s spiritual leaders.

As for the bloc’s recent meeting with caretaker PM Najib Mikati and its outcome, Baarini said: “We handed the government the technical file that was finalized two days ago.”

The lawmaker added that the bloc hopes the Qlayaat airport will be used for cargo and charter flights, especially flights carrying groups seeking religious tourism, in light of the presence of several religious tourism sites in the North, such as Wadi Qannoubine, Ehden and other regions.

MP Ashraf Rifi of the Tajaddod bloc meanwhile voiced support for the demand of the National Moderation Bloc.

“We will seek through the Tajaddod bloc and the allied parliamentary bloc to press to open the airport due to its vital importance. We will also seek to activate the Rashid Karami International Fair and to rehabilitate the Tripoli refinery and the exclusive economic zone,” Rifi added.

“The North needs all its facilities to create an economic cycle that would generate thousands of jobs for our people in Akkar and the North, and there are no excuses from now for any procrastinator, conspirator or negligent official,” Rifi said.

The airport is currently known as the Rene Mouawad Air Base. It used to be a military-civil joint airport in northern Lebanon, six kilometers from the Lebanese–Syrian border.

In the early 1960s, the airbase was a small airport owned by an oil company, which used small IPC airplanes for transporting its engineers, staff and workers between Lebanon and the Arab countries. In 1966, the Lebanese Army took control of the airport and started expanding and developing its technological capabilities.

It later became one of the most modernized air bases in the region. According to an agreement signed by the Lebanese and French republics, a number of Mirage aircraft were supplied to the air force and pilots and technicians were sent to France to continue some courses related to the specified planes.

In the beginning of 1968, the military personnel finished their courses abroad and returned to Lebanon, with some pilots and technicians being transferred from Rayak Air Base to the Qlayaat base. In April of the same year, two aircraft, flown by Lebanese pilots, arrived to Lebanon and other non-stop flights continued until June 1969.

Later during the Lebanese Civil War period, flights were significantly drawn down and the aircraft were kept in storage. In November 1989, the Lebanese parliament met at the airport after the Taif Agreement and elected René Moawad president. Having been assassinated in Beirut seventeen days later, the airport was later renamed in his honor, by a decree from the Lebanese parliament, and thus the airbase was established and became under the control of the Lebanese Air Force (in regards to the equipment and facilities) and under the jurisdiction of the North regional command (in regards to defense and order.)

Middle East Airlines formerly ran flights between this air base and Beirut to serve Tripoli and the surrounding area.

On July 13, 2006, the Israeli Air Force bombed the airbase during the 2006 war on Lebanon. The airport has since been repaired and in service, mainly by the Lebanese Air Force.

In January 2012, the Lebanese cabinet announced plans to restore the airport so that it would be used for cargo and low-cost airlines. Lebanese authorities who have visited the airport announced that the airport would encompass a 500-square-meter duty-free area.