Hezbollah supporters protest outside airport after Iranian plane barred from flying to Beirut
Hezbollah supporters on Thursday blocked some roads leading to Beirut's airport after an Iranian plane was not allowed to take off for Lebanon.
The protesters also burned tires ourtside the airport's entrance and chanted slogans supportive of slain Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
The protests caused a traffic jam in the area as army troops tried to contain the situation and facilitate traffic from and to the airport.1
A video circulated online shows a Lebanese citizen at an Iranian airport denouncing the prohibition of the flight and urging road-blocking protests outside Beirut's airport.
"We are Lebanese citizens. We don't have money to buy another ticket," he adds. "We've been here since morning," he laments.
Media reports said the plane was supposed to carry Lebanese citizens returning from pilgrimage to Shiite sites in Iran.
The development comes a day after the Israeli army claimed that the Iranian Quds Force and Hezbollah have been exploiting civilian flights landing at Beirut airport over the past few weeks in an alleged attempt to “smuggle funds aimed at arming Hezbollah with the objective of carrying out attacks against the State of Israel.”
The Israeli army “remains in contact with the ceasefire monitoring mechanism and continuously relays specific information to thwart these transfers. Despite the efforts made, we estimate that some of these money smuggling attempts have succeeded,” Israeli army Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.
He added that the Israeli army “will not allow Hezbollah to arm itself and will act through all means at its disposal to enforce the implementation of the ceasefire understandings in order to ensure the security of the citizens of the State of Israel.”
Earlier this month, the Iranian foreign ministry said media reports claiming that Tehran was sending money to Hezbollah through Beirut airport were “an Israeli media campaign aimed at obstructing reconstruction” in Lebanon.
The Wall Street Journal had reported that Israel had complained to the U.S.-led ceasefire committee that "Iranian diplomats and others are delivering tens of millions of dollars in cash to Hezbollah to fund the group’s revival."
The American newspaper said it had learned from a U.S. defense official and other sources that Israel had threatened to strike Beirut’s international airport if Iran kept using it to allegedly smuggle aid to Hezbollah.
According to the daily's sources, Israel claimed that Iranian envoys had been flying from Tehran to Beirut’s airport with suitcases stuffed with U.S. dollars and that Turkish citizens had also been smuggling money from Istanbul to Beirut.
The report said a Lebanese security official assured that Beirut's airport is under tight control to prevent smuggling cash to Hezbollah but that valuable items like gemstones and diamonds could pass undetected.
