Lebanon tells Iranian flight it can’t land, after IDF’s Hezbollah smuggling claim
Israel accused Iran of sending cash to Lebanese terror group via passenger flights; shortly thereafter, Mahar Air flight reportedly denied permission to land in Beirut
Lebanese aviation authorities refused to permit an Iranian passenger flight to land at Beirut’s international airport on Thursday, local news reported, following a statement by the Israeli military that Iran has been using such flights to smuggle cash to the Hezbollah terror group.
Dozens of Lebanese nationals were stranded at the international airport in Tehran after Lebanese aviation authorities informed the Iranian Mahar Air airline that its flight to Beirut would not be permitted to land, Lebanese news channel LBCI reported.
Footage circulating on social media purported to show a small band of pro-Hezbollah protesters blocking roads near the Beirut airport in protest of the authorities’ move.
In a post to X on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic-language spokesperson, Col. Avichay Adraee, said cash has been smuggled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to Hezbollah using civilian flights.
The money is being used by the Iran-backed terror group to rebuild itself, according to the IDF.
Hezbollah was devastated by a brief all-out war with Israel last fall, which came following almost a year of near-daily rocket and drone attacks that Hezbollah began launching, unprovoked, on October 8, 2023, in solidarity with fellow terror group Hamas, which had just attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip.
תיעוד מעניין מנמל התעופה בטהראן, שם מעוכבים נוסעים לבנונים בטיסה של מטוס איראני שהיה אמור כבר להגיע לנמל התעופה של ביירות ולא קיבל אישור לנחות, לפי הדיווחים, ברקע ההודעה של דובר צה"ל בערבית, אביחי אדרעי, אתמול שאיראן ממשיכה לנסות להבריח כספים לחיזבאללה דרך נמל התעופה של ביירות… pic.twitter.com/DobXWl9EWg
— roi kais • روعي كايس • רועי קייס (@kaisos1987) February 13, 2025
Adraee said that the IDF has been in contact with a US-led committee supervising the November 27 ceasefire, which ended the war, and was regularly updating the committee with “relevant information in order to foil these transfers.”
Despite the efforts, the IDF spokesperson said, some of the money transfers were likely carried out successfully.
“The IDF will not allow the organization to get stronger, and will use all the tools at its disposal to enforce the understandings in the ceasefire agreement, for the security of the citizens of Israel,” Adraee added.
