While Lebanon sues over allegations of Iranian weapons stored at Beirut airport.
According to the Telegraph, “whistleblowers” at the Beirut International Airport stated that “they were concerned about increasing weapons supplies arriving on direct flights from Iran.” The Lebanese Air Transport Association swiftly denied the claims and is now suing: “Lebanon to sue The Telegraph over allegations of Iranian weapons at Beirut airport stored by Hezbollah,” by Naim Berjawi, Anadolu News Agency, June 24, 2024:
Lebanon has said it will file a lawsuit against the British daily The Telegraph over an article alleging the presence of Iranian weapons and missiles at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport stored by the Lebanese group Hezbollah.
The newspaper’s article “seeks to tarnish the reputation of Beirut International Airport,” the country’s Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told a news conference on Sunday.
He called on ambassadors and media outlets to visit the airport and refute the claims made by The Telegraph.
No immediate reaction was available from the daily as of yet.
On Sunday, The Telegraph, citing airport whistleblowers, said Hezbollah was storing huge quantities of Iranian weapons, missiles, and explosives at the airport.
Lebanon’s Transport Minister Ali Hamieh went into self-defense mode and called the Telegraph report part of a “psychological war” on Lebanon, designed to tarnish the reputation of Lebanon’s only international airport. Foreign diplomats from Egypt, Germany and the European Union showed up to tour the airport, which didn’t say much. They were diplomats who were given access to areas of choice to inspect, not trained weapons inspectors (who are themselves prone to trickery). Consider the weapons inspections that took place in Iraq in 2021:
The detection of a “garage”-type undercover biological-weapons program, or of small yet strategically significant weapons, is quite challenging. For nuclear and chemical weapons inspectors, this challenge is likely to grow as the miniaturization of production and improvements in the effectiveness of the weapons become reality.
The diplomats were virtually given a guided tour by regime guides, and their naïveté was easily exploited, but the tour was good for optics. Even Iran’s installations were ostensibly open to highly trained inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency for years, but those inspectors only appeased Iran and gave it warnings. Iran admitted to breaching the Obama nuclear deal twice, in June 2019 and again in November 2020. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was virtually ignored when he presented extensive evidence in 2018 that the Iran deal was based on lies. Now Iran is believed to be very close to possessing a nuclear bomb.
According to the Jerusalem Post:“Tehran has smuggled weapons to the Lebanese terrorist group by air in the past, and they were then stored in Lebanon’s only commercial airport.”
Now, in damage control to keep the international community off the track and keep business running at the Beirut International Airport, Lebanon has filed a lawsuit accusing the Telegraph of lies.
As Hizballah ramps up its attacks on Israel, it is counting on Joe Biden et al and Western globalists to gang up on Israel, as they have done during the Hamas war. Any weapons cache at an international airport must remain concealed. Hizballah is influential in Lebanon as an armed Islamic “resistance,” as well as a political body. The Iranian proxy brands itself as a “Shia resistance movement within Lebanon.” It is virtually the counterpart of Hamas in Gaza, with its ministers and parliamentarians holding power in Lebanon. According to Chatham House:
Hezbollah stands out among all political actors in Lebanon in having de facto control over Lebanon’s border with Syria. It also stands out for the extent of its use of the Port of Beirut to transport drugs, weapons and explosive material both in and out of Lebanon without any state oversight of its operations or inspections of the hangars it controls.
The most disturbing fact about Hizballah, given its political influence in Lebanon, is that it is positioned to use its people as human shields, as does Hamas. According to Iran International in March:
Christian communities in southern Lebanon have openly opposed Hezbollah’s rocket launches towards Israel as they are used as human shields in the ongoing conflict.
As Hizballah escalates its battle with Israel, it is counting on the naïveté of appeasement-minded Western Leftist leaders to continue to blame Israel, Meanwhile, it also has allies within the highly corrupt Lebanese political structure. Transport Minister Ali Hamieh is one of those. He is Hizballah affiliated, and likely lying to protect Hizballah as it stores Iranian weaponry in Beirut international airport.
Like Hamas, Hizballah’s next move would be to rack up the death toll numbers if it forces Israel into a position to strike, as it, too, hides among the general public.
I wonder whether anyone has, or hasthe ability to, pinpoint the exact location of Hizballah wapons and ammunition stores at the Beirut International Airport. I hope that the Israeli military has this information, and ignores the opposition of the United States and the EU to bombing it.
Excellent, highly informative report.