Saar says Israel won't stay in 5 pts. if Lebanon 'abides' by agreement

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed Tuesday that “Iran is exerting huge efforts to restore Hezbollah through offering financial aid.”

“It is cooperating with Turkey” in this regard, Saar added.

He also said that if Lebanon “abides” by the ceasefire agreement, “there will be no need” for the Israeli army to stay on five strategic hills in south Lebanon.

The Israeli army had claimed Thursday 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.”

Lebanon banned two Iranian flights from landing at the airport in the wake of Adraee’s warnings, sparking protests by Hezbollah supporters, reportedly after Israel threatened to bomb the airport’s runway.

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."

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.