Lebanon bars Iranian flight from landing in Beirut, sparking protests
The incident marks the latest in a series at the Beirut airport, which has been a key point of tension between Iran and people within Lebanon’s government who are cautiously distancing themselves from Iran’s influence.
A group of Lebanese citizens protested on the road to the Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport on Thursday after the Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority told an Iranian Mahan Air flight that it could not land in Beirut.
Mahan Air, which regularly operates flights between Tehran and Beirut, had a flight scheduled to leave Tehran at 2:30 p.m. local time on Thursday, but it was cancelled after Lebanese authorities barred it from landing in Beirut.
Footage circulating on social media shows Lebanese citizens gathered along the road to the airport to protest the decision.
تزايدت الحشود حول مطار بيروت، وأُغلِق عدد كبير من الطرقات، مما يعيق عمله بشكل طبيعي ويمنع المسافرين من المغادرة، ما يعني أنه في حال استمرار الوضع، ستتوقف الطائرات عن الإقلاع . pic.twitter.com/gYSDPUg37p
— Tamer | تامر (@tamerqdh) February 13, 2025
Earlier this week, Lebanon’s General Directorate of Civil Aviation said that "additional safety measures have been implemented in line with international standards and conventions ... which has led to a temporary readjustment of the schedules of certain flights to Lebanon, including those from Iran, until Feb. 18, 2025.” Feb. 18 is the same day the Israeli military is scheduled to withdraw from Lebanon.
Lebanon’s LBCI reported earlier today that Iranian airlines Mahan Air and Iran Air, the nation’s flagship carrier, have been barred from flying into Beirut.
The decision follows allegations by the Israeli military that Iran’s Quds Force — a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — smuggles funds to Hezbollah via planes arriving at the Beirut airport.
The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, took to X on Wednesday, saying, “The Iranian Quds Force and the terrorist Hezbollah have been exploiting Beirut international airport flights over the past few weeks in an attempt to smuggle funds allocated to arm Hezbollah with the aim of carrying out attacks against the State of Israel.”
Adraee added, “We estimate that some of these money smuggling attempts have succeeded.”
Know more: This is not the first time that tension between Iran and Lebanese authorities has bubbled over at Lebanon’s Beirut airport.
Just last month, another Mahan Air flight was flagged and searched after Lebanese authorities received intelligence that it was delivering funds to Hezbollah. An employee at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut was also detained at the airport after he refused an inspection of his luggage. His two bags were reportedly searched, and nothing of suspicion was found.
In November, Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was stopped and searched at the Beirut airport after he and his delegation refused a bag search. Following the refusal, airport security closed the airport's gates and prevented the delegation from entering.
The series of incidents at the airport is part of a larger schism between non-Hezbollah-aligned elements of Lebanon’s government and Hezbollah — and its political backer, Amal — as Hezbollah’s strength in Lebanon wanes following the Israel-Hezbollah war.
Additionally, Lebanon’s new president, Joseph Aoun, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam won out over Hezbollah-backed candidates Sleiman Frangieh and Najib Mikati. More recently, Salam's new cabinet stripped Hezbollah of its veto power over the cabinet, which it had retained since 2008.
