Lebanon has informed Iran that flights between Tehran and Beirut will remain suspended until Tuesday, when the Israeli army is expected to complete its military withdrawal, the Islamic Republic’s official IRNA outlet reported on Sunday following talks between the two countries.
Iran and Lebanon had been at a standoff since last week, when Beirut denied Iranian flights permission to land, reportedly after the United States warned that the Israel Defense Forces could shoot them down.
In response, the Iranian regime moved to bar Lebanese planes, saying that it would not allow them to land until its own flights received permission to fly to Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport.
In a phone call on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his Lebanese counterpart, Youssef Raji, discussed “ways to resolve the issue of passenger flights between the two countries and expressed their readiness for ‘constructive talks’ in good faith,” IRNA reported.
The Israeli government has on several occasions accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force of using civilian airliners to smuggle cash to Hezbollah, its main terrorist proxy army in Lebanon.
A Lebanese security source told Agence France-Presse over the weekend that “through the Americans, Israel informed the Lebanese state that it would target the airport” if Iranian planes landed at Beirut’s airfield.
The Trump administration told Lebanon that Jerusalem “was serious about its threat,” the official Lebanese source cited by AFP concluded.
Hostilities with Hezbollah escalated on Oct. 8, 2023, when the Iranian-backed terror organization started attacks in support of Hamas that saw thousands of rockets, missiles and drones launched at the Jewish state.
Israeli ground forces entered Lebanon on Oct. 1, 2024, in an attempt to push Hezbollah beyond the Litani River, some 20 miles northward. The truce deal that ended the war between Israel and Hezbollah, which took effect on Nov. 27, called for a gradual IDF withdrawal within 60 days.
However, because the Lebanese Armed Forces did not deploy as required in all of the country’s south, the U.S.-monitored pact between Lebanon and Israel is set to continue until Feb. 18, according to a White House statement on Jan. 26.
According to international media reports on Feb. 14, Hezbollah-aligned Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said he had been notified by the Americans that the IDF would withdraw on Feb. 18 but intends to remain at five positions in Southern Lebanon close to the border.
