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Outrage over Iranian flight disruption at Beirut airport
Authorities at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport had told the Mahan Air flight that it would need to undergo inspection or it would not be allowed to land.
The measure followed a report earlier in the day by the Saudi Al-Hadath channel, citing Western sources, claiming that Iran “intended to transfer millions of dollars to Hezbollah via a Mahan Air flight.”
Lebanese caretaker Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi confirmed during a talk show on Thursday night that the plane was being searched.
The airport’s security requested to search the diplomats’ bags to check whether they were carrying cash. The diplomats initially rejected the request, resulting in long delays in disembarking passengers from the plane.
Tensions gradually escalated as people on board grew frustrated over the wait, prompting Lebanese army forces to intervene and restore order.
The plane was eventually given the greenlight in the late hours of Thursday after the diplomats’ bags were searched, finding that they did not contain anything undeclared.
“An Iranian diplomat refused to have his bags searched upon landing in Lebanon tonight. After a long dispute, Tehran sent a cable to Beirut saying two bags had documents and cash to pay operating expenses at the Iranian Embassy in the country. They were let go per Vienna Convention.” Washington-based Lebanese journalist Joseph Haboush wrote on X.
Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry said Friday that it received a written letter from the Iranian Embassy in Beirut clarifying that two diplomatic bags which initially had not been allowed to pass contained documents and cash for embassy operational expenses only.
The incident led to small protests mainly by Hezbollah supporters outside the airport and across Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The airport has seen stringent security measures in recent months in the wake of the Hezbollah-Israel war which ended in late November. Iranian planes had not been allowed to land at Beirut airport during the war as Israel claimed they could be transporting weapons to Hezbollah.
Under the US-brokered cease-fire agreement which ended the war in late November, the Lebanese government must gradually disarm Hezbollah and all other armed factions and take full control of the country’s borders.