Lebanon’s New Government Blocks Iranian Arms Pipeline to Hezbollah

Lebanon’s newly installed government is cracking down hard on Iran’s smuggling network to Hezbollah.

On Thursday, tensions began to simmer when officials blocked a Beirut-bound flight from Tehran. When they stopped a second flight the next day, supporters of the Iranian-backed terror group stormed the streets, shutting down access to Lebanon’s only international airport until Lebanese troops dispersed them with tear gas.

Hezbollah notably threw a hissy fit.

“Hezbollah demands that the Lebanese government reverse its decision of preventing the Iranian plane from landing at Beirut airport and take serious measures to prevent the Israeli enemy from imposing its dictates and violating sovereignty,” a statement by the terror group via Al Mayadeen reads.

However, with threats of Israeli retaliation, Lebanon’s new U.S-backed president Joseph Aounis is signaling a new era free of Hezbollah.

“Through the Americans, Israel informed the Lebanese state that it would target the airport if the Iranian plane landed in Lebanon,” a security source with knowledge of the matter tells AFP. “The American side told the Lebanese side that Israel was serious about its threat.”

Hezbollah has long been using Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport as a smuggling route for its arms shipments from Iran.

Whistleblowers from inside Beirut’s airport tell The Telegraph that a surge in “unusually big boxes” are being removed from direct flights from Iran. The deadly Iranian arms that have been stockpiled at the airport allegedly include Fateh-110 short-range missiles, Falaq unguided artillery rockets, anti-tank guided munitions, and RDX explosives.

Another insider alleges that Hezbollah’s chief of security operations, Wafiq Safa, has become a conspicuous figure at the airport supervising the illicit arms shipments while customs officials look the other way. Some staffers have even boasted of receiving bribes in the form of luxury cars and electronics in exchange for their complicity.

Hezbollah’s complete disregard for civilian safety is grimly reminiscent of how the terrorist group weaponized the Port of Beirut into an Iranian weapons depot, leading to the catastrophic 2020 explosion.

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