Iranian plane, diplomat searched at Beirut airport: What we know
Supporters of Iran-backed Hezbollah protested the search of the Iranian diplomat's plane in Beirut.
BEIRUT — An Iranian plane was flagged and searched at Lebanon’s international airport late on Thursday after local authorities reportedly received intelligence that it was carrying funds to the paramilitary Hezbollah group.
Lebanese security officials detained the Iranian airline Mahan Air's plane coming from Tehran after it landed at the Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport on Thursday night, according to local reports.
A diplomat who works at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut was also briefly detained after he refused to allow his luggage to be inspected by security officials, citing diplomatic immunity. The two bags he carried were eventually searched and according to information obtained by the local An-Nahar newspaper, nothing suspicious was found in the bags nor on the plane.
In comments to the local MTV station on Thursday, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi confirmed that the Mahan Air plane was being thoroughly inspected and that airport security was “implementing instructions.” He did not elaborate.
Earlier on Thursday, Western sources had revealed to the Saudi-owned al-Hadath station that Iran was planning to transfer millions of dollars to its proxy group in Lebanon, Hezbollah, via a Mahan Air flight from Tehran to Beirut.
The Abu Dhabi-based Erem News site also reported that Lebanese authorities were alerted on Thursday morning about the possibility of a Mahan Air flight to Beirut bringing funds to be delivered to Hezbollah.
A security source at the Beirut airport told Erem News that the security leadership will prevent the plane from leaving the airport grounds, adding that intense contacts were ongoing between Lebanese and Iranian authorities.
The Tehran-based Mahran Air airlines is subject to US and EU sanctions over its alleged links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and for allegedly supplying Iranian proxy groups in the region with weapons, equipment and funds.
Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry later said in a statement it received a written explanation from the Iranian Embassy in Beirut regarding the contents of two small bags carried by the Iranian diplomat. According to the memorandum, the bags contained documents, papers and banknotes that were intended “solely” for the operational expenses of the embassy.
Consequently, the two bags were allowed to enter in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, the Foreign Ministry statement clarified.
Hezbollah supporters gathered in the vicinity of the airport in protest of the security measures.
تظاهر مناصرون لحزب الله ليلاً أمام مطار بيروت والسفارة الإيرانية احتجاجاً على تفتيش طائرة "ماهان إير" الإيرانية، بعد الاشتباه بوجود حقيبة تنقل أموالاً #مطار_بيروت #لبنان #ايران #أخبار_الجديد pic.twitter.com/Mm7m1DTtS3
— Al Jadeed News (@ALJADEEDNEWS) January 3, 2025
On Nov. 15, an Iranian delegation accompanying Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was also searched by security at the Beirut airport as the war between Israel and Hezbollah was raging.
On Nov. 27, the two parties agreed to a 60-day ceasefire that ended the more than a year of cross-border hostilities. Under the US-brokered deal, Hezbollah elements would withdraw about 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of the border with Israel and Israeli forces would withdraw from the area, while the Lebanese army would deploy in the south alongside UN peacekeeping forces to prevent Hezbollah from regrouping.
Hezbollah and Israel were engaged in heavy cross-border fighting since Oct. 8, 2023 that escalated into a full-blown war in September. Hezbollah suffered significant losses, with Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah being killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut late September.
The group also seemingly lost one of its main supply routes from Iran after the takeover of the rebels in neighboring Syria and the fall of President Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8. The British daily The Times reported last month that Iran was seeking to establish an air corridor to Lebanon to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah after losing the Syria route.
Western countries are “concerned that Iran has lost [Damascus as] its go-to airport in the region for smuggling weapons and is now trying to turn Beirut airport into its new logistics hub, just as they did in Syria,” a regional source familiar with discussion in Tehran told The Times.
