Unlike the 2006 war, Lebanon’s only civilian airport was spared Israeli strikes during the war last year [Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty]
Hezbollah has denied reports that it was receiving funds from Iran via Beirut airport, amid a fragile ceasefire deal with Israel which has sought to cut off the group’s supply routes and dry up its financing.
Citing a US defence official, Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said Friday that Israel had filed a complaint to a multi-national committee overseeing the ceasefire deal alleging that Iranian diplomats were delivering “tens of millions of dollars in cash” to Hezbollah to help with the group’s revival.
Israel is committed to preventing Hezbollah from rebuilding itself and has threatened to strike Beirut Airport if it is used to smuggle aid to the Iran-backed group, the report said.
A Hezbollah lawmaker told The New Arab’s sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that these reports were “Israeli and American attempts” to justify Israel’s ongoing attacks and violations of the ceasefire deal, as well as the committee’s inability to stop Israel from not meeting the terms of the agreement.
“This report, like reports published previously, is part of Israel’s lies and the pretexts that the occupation relies on to justify its crimes, and to accuse Hezbollah and Lebanon of violating the agreement, as it does when it claims to attack targets affiliated with Hezbollah, while in reality it targets and kills civilians…directly and in plain sight”, the MP who wished to remain anonymous told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
The official claimed the US and Israel were still attempting to turn Hezbollah’s supporters and the Lebanese people against the group and portray it as being responsible for any harm in the country, slamming “internal parties” who were condemning Hezbollah and its arms instead of Israel.
He said the “Lebanese state must take action to put an end to these threats and violations and reject any pretexts that the Israelis resort to”, warning against Israel further delaying its withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
Under the US-brokered 27 November ceasefire deal, Israel was meant to pull its troops out of southern Lebanon on 26 January but has refused to, claiming that Lebanon was slowly implementing its part of the deal and that it would not leave as long as Hezbollah was present at its border.
The agreement was extended to 18 February after US mediation.
Other than the Hezbollah lawmaker’s comments, no Lebanese government official has responded to the claims.
The New Arab tried to contact the head of civilian aviation at the Beirut airport.
What is Israel claiming?
According to the WSJ report, Israel claims that Iranian envoys are travelling from Tehran to Beirut with bags full of US dollars, adding that Turkish nationals were also being used to transfer money from Istanbul to Beirut on behalf of Iran.
Behnam Khosravi, a diplomat at the Iranian embassy in Lebanon, told Iranian state media this month that Tehran does not use passenger planes to smuggle money into Lebanon, while Turkish officials have also said that any large amounts of cash moving through Istanbul airport could have been detected by X-ray machines or other security measures.
Last summer, and only months before the cross-border fighting escalated into a full-blown war, The Telegraph released a much-criticised report which only cited anonymous sources, claiming Hezbollah was storing weapons at the airport. This caused outrage in Lebanon against the British newspaper as many said this could provide a justification for Israel to bomb the civilian facility.
Since the devastating war between Hezbollah and Israel, Lebanese authorities have introduced stringent measures at the airport, ports, and border crossings, vowing to stop the flow of arms.
During the war, Iranian planes had not been allowed to land at the airport, as Israel said they could be transporting weapons to Hezbollah, which has come out battered from the conflict, having lost its senior command structure and thousands of its fighters.
Earlier this month, an Iranian commercial plane underwent rigorous security checks at the airport after it was suspected that it was transporting money to Hezbollah, causing uproar among passengers and Hezbollah’s supporters who said they felt they were being “punished” for fighting Israel.
There are worries that Israel could use its claims of Iran sending bags of money to target the Beirut airport, which unlike the 2006 war, was spared Israeli strikes last year.
Being Lebanon’s only civilian airport, it continued to operate despite the heavy bombardment surrounding it.
Financial crunch
As well as losing its main supply route through Syria after the Assad regime was ousted in December, Hezbollah – like its main backer Tehran – is under heavy Western sanctions which seek to cut off any financial assistance to the group.
Reports this week said Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a financial company close to Hezbollah whose branches were bombed by Israel, had stopped paying compensations to people who lost their homes and businesses in the war.
Depositors were reportedly told the freeze in payments would continue till 10 February.
Some speculations tied this decision to the militant group’s overall struggles in meeting its financial needs, while Al-Qard Al-Hassan said there were “technical reasons” without further clarification.
Large parts of southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs, and towns and villages across east Lebanon’s Beqaa – three regions where Hezbollah has long exercised dominance – were destroyed in Israel’s offensive, and reconstruction is expected to cost billions.
The war uprooted over a million people, and many are still unable to return home.
