BEIRUT (Dispatches) – A senior Hezbollah member has censured the Lebanese government’s handling of the Thursday crisis at Beirut’s airport, stressing that maintaining fair relations with Iran is in Lebanon’s best interests.
Angry protests broke out across roads leading to Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport in response to a decision by the government to “temporarily” ban Iranian planes from touching down.
“The Lebanese government’s stance on what happened at the airport in Beirut following the refusal of an Iranian plane carrying Lebanese passengers to land was not correct and promising,” Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, a member of Hezbollah politburo, to Al-Manar TV channel.
“It is in Lebanon’s interests that its relations with Iran are kept at their best,” he said, adding, “We call on Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to act on the path of balanced relations with Iran and the United States, and the Lebanese government should not be submissive to the dictates of the U.S. government.”
Lebanon’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said on Thursday it had “temporarily rescheduled” some flights including from Iran until February 18 as it was implementing “additional security measures.”
Later in the day, a crowd of Lebanese people blocked roads to the Beirut airport and burned tires to protest Lebanon’s decision.
After the airport protests, authorities said they were working to bring back Lebanese passengers abandoned in Iran with planes belonging to the Beirut-based Middle East Airlines.
After blocking the Iranian flight, Lebanon dispatched two planes on Friday from its own national airliner Middle East Airlines to bring the stranded Lebanese home from Iran, but Tehran refused to allow the Lebanese aircraft to land on its territory.
Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Joe Raggi told the Al-Jadeed broadcaster that his ministry was working to resolve the issue with Iranian counterparts.
Iran’s Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani, in a televised interview on Friday, said Tehran is trying to restore flights between the two countries. He said the Lebanese government had requested that another plane evacuate the Lebanese stranded in Iran.
Amani said Tehran could agree to flights by the Middle East Airlines “on the condition that they (Lebanese authorities) don’t block Iranian flights.”
The developments coincided with Israel’s threats against Iranian planes landing in Lebanon.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said, “The threat by the Zionist regime to a passenger plane carrying Lebanese citizens has disrupted normal flights to Beirut airport.”
Baghaei condemned Israel’s “gross and continuous violations of the principles and rules of international law and violations of Lebanon’s national sovereignty.”
In September, Lebanon’s transport ministry ordered an Iranian aircraft not to enter its airspace after Israel warned air traffic control at Beirut airport that it would use “force” if the plane landed.