Beirut, Lebanon – Hezbollah supporters blocked the Beirut airport road and burned tyres on Thursday to protest a decision barring two Iranian planes from landing in the Lebanese capital, state media and an airport official said.
“Young men set tyres on fire in front of the airport entrance, raising banners supporting Hezbollah’s former Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah,” said Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).
Some of the young men raised Hezbollah’s yellow flag and held pictures of Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli strike in September, as well as Iran’s slain Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, AFP footage showed.
The Lebanese army had been deployed there, the NNA said, with videos online showing scuffles between angry protesters and soldiers.
Later in the evening, Lebanon’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said it was working with the country’s national carrier to “operate a flight tonight to transport Lebanese passengers stranded at Tehran Airport”.
It said it was implementing “some additional security measures” to guarantee the airport’s security and that it had informed relevant airlines a day earlier.
“Since the proper implementation of these procedures requires more time for some airlines to commit to them, some flights coming to Lebanon were temporarily rescheduled, including flights coming from the Islamic Republic of Iran, until February 18,” the statement said.
An official at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport told AFP that the Public Works and Transport ministry had asked the facility to inform Iranian carrier Mahan Air that Lebanon could not welcome two of its Beirut-bound flights.
One flight was scheduled for Thursday and another for Friday, said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
“The two flights were rescheduled to next week,” he added, without saying why.
That date coincides with the deadline for the full implementation of a November 27 ceasefire agreement that ended more than a year of Israel-Hezbollah hostilities including about two months of all-out war.
Both sides have accused each other of violations.
Earlier in the day, video footage circulated online showing a Lebanese man stranded at a Tehran airport calling on his peers to block the Beirut airport road.
“We have been waiting here since this morning. We are Lebanese… no one can control us,” the man said, calling on Hezbollah-allied parliament speaker Nabih Berri to secure the return of Lebanese travellers.
No permission to land
Saeed Chalandri, CEO of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport, said “today’s flight to Beirut was scheduled… but the destination (country) did not issue the necessary permission,” in an interview with Mehr news agency.
A day earlier, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said Iran’s Quds Force and Hezbollah “have been exploiting… over the past few weeks the Beirut International Airport through civilian flights, to smuggle funds dedicated to arming” the group.
He added that the Israeli army was sending information to the committee tasked with ensuring ceasefire violations are identified and dealt with in order “to thwart” such attempts, though some had been successful.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of using Lebanon’s only airport to transfer weapons from Iran.
Hezbollah and Lebanese officials have denied the claims, with authorities reinforcing surveillance and inspections at the facility.
In January, an Iranian plane carrying a diplomatic delegation was subjected to inspection, sparking outrage from Hezbollah and its supporters and praise by its detractors.
Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim Al Moussawi denounced “Zionist” threats to the Beirut airport.
He called on “the Lebanese state” to “assume its responsibilities” by “working on returning its citizens to their country immediately and refrain from complying with Israeli threats”.