Hezbollah 'stores large quantities of Iranian weapons at civilian airport'

Ghassan Hasbani, a former deputy prime minister and MP for the Lebanese Forces, said Hezbollah's control of the airport has long been a concern for Lebanon and even more so now if it increasingly becomes a potential military target in the conflict with Israel.

He called for measures to assess risks at the airport, amid fears of a repeat of the tragic port disaster of 2020. “It is very difficult to know who can act,” he said. “The last time the government tried to act, in 2008, Hezbollah reacted violently.

“The area all around the airport is controlled by Hezbollah, so many people are concerned about passing through Beirut airport, which is why many Gulf countries have sometimes imposed bans on their citizens from traveling “get there,” he said.

“Weapons transported from Iran to Hezbollah through border entry points or even weapons components endanger both the Lebanese population and non-Lebanese crossing and living in the country . »

Action is virtually impossible without international intervention to implement relevant UN resolutions, he said. “The roots of Hezbollah are everywhere, not only in airports but also in ports, in the judicial system and throughout society.

“Public administration is now largely hijacked by Hezbollah and it is very difficult to remove it without changing the militia-backed power play that exists today. »

A security source at a major international aviation body told the Telegraph: “We have been aware of this for years, but we cannot do anything without international legal action. We are forced to do what we really want, which is to close the airport and remove all weapons and explosives.”

For years, Israel has carried out attacks on airports in Damascus and Aleppo in Syria, where Iran transfers weapons from its production facilities to its proxies in the region, including Hezbollah. Several of them carried out civilian flights.

In November, Damascus airport was forced to close after strikes diverted all flights.