Lebanon gives tour of Beirut airport to refute arms claims, amid fears of war with Israel
LA TimesFighters from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah carry out a training exercise in Aaramta village in the Jezzine District, southern Lebanon in May 2023. According to the un-bylined Telegraph story, one Beirut airport staffer reported seeing “unusually big boxes” arriving on a flight from Iran in November and that a high-ranking Hezbollah member oversaw customs shipments. The caretaker Lebanese Transportation Minister Ali Hamieh, a Hezbollah ally, dismissed the Telegraph’s report as “ridiculous,” saying that the airport’s cargo operations adhered to international standards. As part of the tour, diplomats and journalists visited two cargo areas in the airport that Hamieh said accounted for all traffic there — including the Iranian shipments mentioned in the Telegraph’s report. The Israeli foreign ministry’s official account on the social media platform X retweeted the Telegraph article, commenting that “in normal countries, airports are used for travel.” Israel has targeted Beirut’s airport before.