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Reporters banned from entering cargo area in tour of Beirut airport aimed at disproving claims of weapons stockpiling

By Gianluca Pacchiani 24 June 2024, 2:16 pm 25 Edit

Gianluca Pacchiani is the Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel

Planes are grounded due to the coronavirus pandemic at the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon, March 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)
Planes are grounded due to the coronavirus pandemic at the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon, March 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

A tour of Beirut airport for journalists and ambassadors that Lebanon’s Hezbollah-affiliated transport minister said would prove that the terror group is not storing weapons on site is interrupted as reporters and cameramen are prevented from entering a cargo-handling area in the airport.

The tour had been arranged by Beirut’s Transport Ministry to disprove allegations published yesterday by The Telegraph that the Shiite terror group has stockpiled weapons coming from Iran at the airport, including ballistic missiles, unguided artillery rockets, and laser-guided anti-tank guided missiles, as well as a highly explosive and toxic white powder known as RDX.

In response to the allegations, Lebanon’s Hezbollah-affiliated Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamieh held a press conference at the airport yesterday, dismissing the “ridiculous” allegations. Hamieh invited journalists and ambassadors to take a tour of the airport’s facilities this morning, to prove that “there is nothing to hide,” Lebanese media quoted the minister as saying.

During today’s tour, dozens of journalists and ambassadors are accompanied through parts of the airport, but only the diplomats are allowed to enter one of the cargo-handling buildings due to “organizational issues,” while journalists are left to wait outside in the heat, according to the Saudi Al-Hadath news outlet.

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