Lebanon blocked an Iranian airliner from flying into Beirut Thursday after Israel accused Iran a day earlier of using civilian flights to deliver cash to Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
The chief executive of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, Saeed Chalandri, told Iranian state news agency Mehr that the Mahan Air flight to Beirut was canceled before takeoff because Lebanon had not granted it permission to land.
In a video posted on X by an Iran-based journalist and deemed credible by VOA Persian, the passengers could be seen waiting in a departure hall designated for religious pilgrims, with one man shouting in frustration at being stuck there.
In a Thursday statement published by Lebanon’s National News Agency, Beirut’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said the government was asking some airlines to “temporarily reschedule” flights to Lebanon while it implements “some additional security measures.” The civil aviation office did not immediately respond to a VOA request, emailed Friday, for comment on which airlines had been asked to reschedule and how many flights were affected.
The statement said Lebanon also was working with its national carrier, Middle East Airlines, to send a plane to Tehran to bring the stranded passengers home.
The moves followed a Wednesday Arabic statement by Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee, accusing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force of exploiting civilian flights to Beirut airport to smuggle cash to its main proxy, Hezbollah, without oversight by the Lebanese government.
Iran’s U.N. Mission in New York did not immediately respond to a VOA request, emailed on Thursday, for comment on the Israeli allegation.
Mahan Air is sanctioned by the United States as part of a long-running U.S. effort to target entities that fund and arm Hezbollah.
Researcher David Daoud of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies told VOA he has tracked 26 Mahan Air flights from Iran to Beirut since December 1. He said Thursday’s cancelation was the first time Lebanon blocked one the airline’s flights since letting it resume service to Beirut following a November 27 ceasefire in a yearlong conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah initiated the conflict with Israel in October 2023 in solidarity with Palestinian terror group Hamas, before agreeing to the ceasefire under pressure from an Israeli offensive that had begun in September 2024 and killed its top leaders.
Adraee said Israel provided information to a U.S.-led group monitoring the ceasefire to try to stop Iran flying cash to Hezbollah, which he said already had received some of the funds. But the Israeli military refused to comment on whether it had contacted the ceasefire monitoring group to urge Lebanon to block Thursday’s flight.
The ceasefire obliges the Lebanese government to assert sovereignty over the country and prevent Hezbollah and other armed groups from receiving “arms and related material” through border crossings and attacking Israel. It does not explicitly mention deliveries of cash to Hezbollah. Israel also is obligated to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon as Lebanese government forces deploy in the region.
Adraee said the Israeli military "will not allow [Hezbollah] to build up its forces and will use all available means to enforce the ceasefire understandings and ensure the security of [Israel's] citizens." It was the strongest statement that Israel has made on Iranian cash deliveries to Hezbollah since the recent conflict began.
Daoud said Adraee's warning "put the Lebanese on notice that the Israelis are watching the Beirut airport and know funds for Hezbollah are coming through these Iranian flights."
"Suddenly, there is movement at the Beirut airport," he said, in reference to Lebanese authorities denying landing rights to the Mahan Air flight. “This is part of a pattern in which the Israelis call out them out, and the Lebanese do something that makes them look like they are acting. But the issue is consistency."
Daoud said Lebanon could demonstrate consistency if it bans Mahan Air from flying to Beirut. Short of that step, he said Lebanon also could subject the airline's passengers and cargo to sustained high scrutiny on arrival.
Matthew Levitt, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said in a VOA interview that the Mahan Air flight cancelation is “welcome news.”
“This is how the Lebanese government will reassert sovereignty over the country, if it continues to move in this direction. And that is not a guarantee,” he said.
This article was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian service.
