Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Francisco Anzola/Flickr
Planes at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport in Lebanon
(JNS) — Lebanon’s new government said it is making progress in taking back control of the country’s only operational commercial airport from terror group Hezbollah, which has used it as a key route for smuggling in cash, arms and other equipment.
Lebanon recently foiled an attempt to smuggle more than 50 pounds of gold to Hezbollah through the airport, according to The Wall Street Journal on May 10.
“You can feel the difference,” Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam told the Journal. “We’re doing better on smuggling for the first time in the contemporary history of Lebanon.”
Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport is located in southern Beirut, an area controlled by Hezbollah.
That Hezbollah and its main patron, Iran, used the Beirut airport has been an open secret for years. In 2022 and 2018, reports revealed that Iran had been using civilian flights to the airport for the trafficking of weapons to Hezbollah.
On Feb. 28, Lebanese authorities arrested a courier at the airport with $2.5 million in cash, part of a sophisticated covert funding pipeline to the terrorist group using couriers, duty-free baggage swaps and diplomatic immunity.
Lebanon’s new government, formed on Feb. 8, 2025, is seeking to put a stop to this, taking advantage of an opportunity provided by Israel’s offensive in the fall of 2024, to break up Hezbollah’s influence over the airport.
“Dozens of airport staffers suspected of being affiliated with Hezbollah have been removed, according to senior Lebanese security and military officials. Smugglers have been arrested and existing laws are now being enforced, Lebanon’s new prime minister said,” according to the Journal.
“Ground crews say they are no longer directed by superiors to exempt some planes and passengers from searches, while flights from Iran have been suspended since February. And the state is installing new surveillance technologies that will incorporate artificial intelligence, a senior security official said,” the newspaper reported.
U.S. and Israeli military officials have expressed satisfaction with the Lebanese government’s efforts thus far. This marks a softening of Israel’s position, which in January threatened to strike the airport if smuggling by Iranian diplomats and Turkish citizens through it to resupply Hezbollah didn’t stop, the Journal reported at the time.
“There is reason for hope here,” a senior U.S. official and member of the international committee overseeing the ceasefire brokered between Israel and Lebanon on Nov. 27, 2024, told the Journal. “It has only been six or seven months, and we have stepped to a place that I am not sure I thought was achievable back in November.”
Hezbollah, which wielded unrivaled military and political power in Lebanon before the Israeli offensive, has since seen its top leadership killed and military and financial strength devastated by Israel. It is struggling to meet its commitments to its followers.
Compounding its problems, it saw its chief overland smuggling route disappear with the collapse of the Bashar Assad regime in Syria.
“We have received very severe blows with the killing of our cadres, with the killing of our leadership, with the destruction of a lot of our arsenal,” said Ibrahim Mousawi, who represents Hezbollah in Lebanon’s parliament.
To further isolate Hezbollah, Salam is pushing a plan for a second commercial airport in northern Lebanon outside of Hezbollah’s control. It would provide an alternative in case the Beirut airport is attacked. Hezbollah had used its influence to block a northern airport, the Lebanese prime minister said.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, chairman of the Yesh Atid Party, welcomed “any sovereignty of the Lebanese government” in remarks to JNS at his weekly faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on Monday.
“This means the reduction of the power of Hezbollah,” Lapid said. “We will not allow Hezbollah to regain the power and control over Lebanon and we should welcome and support any signs of governance by the Lebanese government.”
