Iran accuses Israel of disrupting air route to Lebanon

Iran accused Israel on Friday of disrupting flights from Tehran to Beirut, after a decision barring two Iranian planes from landing in the Lebanese capital sparked protests.

Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of using Lebanon's only airport to transfer weapons from Iran and struck the area during its war with the Tehran-backed militant group which ended late last year.

The Iranian foreign ministry said that "the threat by the Zionist regime to a passenger plane carrying Lebanese citizens has disrupted normal flights to Beirut airport".

The statement by ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei did not specify the nature of the threat attributed to Israel, but comes after Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee had warned the army was prepared "to thwart" any attempts to transfer funds or weapons to Hezbollah.

Hezbollah and Lebanese officials have denied Israel's claims that Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport was used to arm the militant group.

Baqaei condemned Israel's "gross and continuous violations of the principles and rules of international law and violations of Lebanon's national sovereignty".

He also called for the International Civil Aviation Organization and other world bodies "to stop Israel's dangerous behavior against the safety and security of civil aviation".

Lebanon's Directorate General of Civil Aviation said on Thursday it had "temporarily rescheduled" some flights including from Iran until February 18 as it was implementing "additional security measures".

That date coincides with the deadline for the full implementation of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah.

The Israeli military's Adraee has said that Iran and Hezbollah "have been exploiting... the Beirut international airport through civilian flights, to smuggle funds dedicated to arming" the group.

Late Thursday, a crowd of Lebanese supporters of Hezbollah blocked the Beirut airport road and burned tires to protest the decision to bar the Iranian planes from landing.

AFP images showed young men raising Hezbollah's yellow flag and holding portraits of the group's former leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike in September, and of Iran's slain Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani.

After the airport protests, authorities said they were working to bring back Lebanese passengers stranded in Iran with planes belonging to the Beirut-based Middle East Airlines.

But Saeed Chalandari, CEO of Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport said on Friday that Iran had rejected the proposal.

"Naturally, we do not agree to their request, because if there is to be a flight between the two countries, it must be a two-way flight," Chalandari told Iranian news agency Tasnim.

Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, said that Tehran could agree to the Middle East Airlines evacuation flights "on the condition that they (Lebanese authorities) don't block Iranian flights."