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Iran Is Using Lebanon’s Airport to Fund Terrorism; The World Must Respond
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian speaks during a press conference upon arrival at Beirut international airport, Lebanon February 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
The Lebanese government has a choice to make — reclaim effective control of its main international airport from Hezbollah, or see that air hub destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces. As government ministers in Beirut ponder their decision, Washington can help.
For the past year, Beirut’s Rafic Hariri international airport has been the main gateway for Iran’s resupply of weapons to Hezbollah, its terror proxy in Lebanon. Hezbollah’s full control of the airport has allowed Iran to easily resupply its allies there.
But not anymore.
Hours after Israel’s successful elimination of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on September 28, an Iranian cargo plane left Tehran’s international airport for Beirut. But upon entering Lebanon’s airspace, the control tower — under threat of Israeli kinetic action — denied landing permission to the aircraft, which turned around and headed back to Iran.
Data obtained from an open source — commercial flight tracker FlightRadar24 — show that subsequent Iranian flights, on October 1, October 5 and October 7, also failed to reach Beirut, also reportedly due to Israeli interdiction.
The Israeli Air Force has closed the Tehran-Beirut air resupply route: Iranian cargo has now been diverted to Latakia, Syria, with weapons then continuing by truck to Lebanon through border crossings that Israel’s air force has also been targeting.
For Israel, blocking the flow of Iranian weapons into Lebanon is essential to preventing Hezbollah from reconstituting its arsenal. But the cat-and-mouse game in the skies of the Levant is not a long-term solution, as long as Hezbollah controls Lebanon’s only civilian, commercial, international airport.
Breaking Hezbollah’s grip on the relevant arms of the Lebanese government is the only way to ensure Iran can no longer replenish Hezbollah’s arsenal.
Previously, Israel’s air interdiction had focused on Syria, which for years had been the key destination for Iranian weapons deliveries. Israeli precision strikes on Syrian runways and weapons warehouses led to the Iranian shift toward Beirut — especially after October 7, 2023, when Hezbollah joined Hamas in its onslaught against Israel’s civilian population.
The Iranian carrier Mahan Air — which the US Department of the Treasury has repeatedly sanctioned for transporting weapons, militias, and illicit procurement on Iran’s behalf — began flying into Beirut at least weekly.
With hostilities escalating from cross-border exchanges into a full-fledged conflict, Mahan flights have stopped going to Beirut, but continue to head into Latakia, Syria, alongside other carriers, including a cargo Boeing 747 operated by Fars Air Qeshm, a US sanctioned Iranian regime proxy of Mahan Air, previously involved, on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force, in the transfer of weaponry to Syria and other destinations — including, reportedly, Ethiopia, Myanmar, and Sudan — since 2017.
With Israel methodically hitting Hezbollah’s hidden weapons caches across Lebanon, the only way Iran can ensure Hezbollah can live to fight another day is to resume these deliveries. That is why, despite international airlines having cancelled all flights to Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International airport, Iranian carriers are scrambling to make it there.
Despite the trappings of state institutions formally running Lebanon’s transport and travel infrastructure — airports and ports authorities, airport security, customs, and a ministry of public transports — Hezbollah officials control or have heavily infiltrated them, thereby enabling Hezbollah’s activities rather than preventing them.
For years now, Hezbollah has suborned the airport to its needs: Drug shipments from Latin America go unchecked through security and customs, before they reach lucrative Middle East markets in exchange for a fee paid to the Hezbollah officials who clear the illicit merchandise. And weapons shipments have come in regularly from Iran, before being offloaded and stored nearby.
Hezbollah’s continuing grip on Beirut’s airport will sooner or later make the airport a target for Israeli action.
Washington and its allies can help remedy this situation.
First, Hezbollah officials implicated in turning Lebanon’s points of entry into smuggling machines should be sanctioned. Under President Trump, the US Department of the Treasury targeted Wafiq Safa, the man in charge of security at Beirut’s airport.
According to Treasury, Safa — the head of Hezbollah’s security apparatus — “exploited Lebanon’s ports and border crossings to smuggle contraband and facilitate travel on behalf of Hizballah, undermining the security and safety of the Lebanese people, while also draining valuable import duties and revenue away from the Lebanese government.” But that was five years ago. More pressure is needed, including on the Hezbollah-backed minister of public transports, Ali Hamieh.
The European Union spent 3.5 million euro to bolster Beirut’s airport security in 2020, and recently pledged another billion euro to help Lebanon’s fledgling economy and strengthen state institutions, including the improvement of border management and security — all after Lebanon’s airport chief had been sanctioned by the US.
Holding the Lebanese government responsible for failing to use European taxpayer funds for the purposes for which they were earmarked should become a first priority, making any future security aid conditional on removing any Hezbollah officials from the public transport and infrastructure sector.
Lebanon is at a crossroads. If its government can be convinced to degrade Hezbollah infiltration of its government institutions, such as its international airport, it stands a chance to get back on its feet. The alternative is that, having relinquished control over its international border crossings to Hezbollah and Iran, it will risk losing its only gateway to the world to IDF action. That would be a tragedy for Lebanon — but an inevitable casualty of a conflict for which Lebanon’s authorities have only themselves to blame.
Emanuele Ottolenghi is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a non-partisan research institute in Washington, DC, focusing on foreign policy and national security. Follow him on X @eottolenghi
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US Vetoes UN Security Council Demand for Gaza Ceasefire
Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from Israel, June 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The United States vetoed a UN Security Council demand on Wednesday for an “immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire” between Israel and Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza and unhindered aid access across the enclave.
“The United States has been clear we would not support any measure that fails to condemn Hamas and does not call for Hamas to disarm and leave Gaza,” Acting US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea told the council before the vote.
“This resolution would undermine diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire that reflects the realities on the ground, and embolden Hamas,” she said of the text that was put forward by 10 countries on the 15-member council.
The remaining 14 council members voted in favor of the draft resolution.
Israel has rejected calls for an unconditional or permanent ceasefire, saying Hamas cannot stay in Gaza. It has renewed its military offensive in Gaza – also seeking to free hostages held by Hamas – since ending a two-month ceasefire in March.
The war in Gaza has raged since 2023 after Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 people in Israel in an Oct. 7 attack and took some 250 hostages back to the enclave.
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Trump Picks Lawyer Who Called Oct. 7 Attack a ‘Psyop’ to Lead Federal Watchdog Agency
Paul Ingrassia. Photo: Screenshot
Paul Ingrassia, a 29-year-old lawyer who was recently nominated by US President Donald Trump to lead a federal agency dedicated to combating corruption and protecting whistleblowers, seemingly dismissed the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2o23, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel as a “psyop,” or “psychological operation, in resurfaced social media posts.
“This ‘war’ is yet another psyop to distract Americans from celebrating Columbus Day,” Ingrassia wrote on X/Twitter on Oct. 8, 2023.
“I think we could all admit at this stage that Israel/Palestine, much like Ukraine before it, and BLM before that, and covid/vaccine before that, was another psyop,” he posted a week later. “But sadly, people fell for it. And they’ll fall for the next one too.”
On the actual day of the Oct. 7 massacre, Ingrassia compared illegal immigration into the US to the Hamas-led onslaught.
“The amount of energy everyone has put into condemning Hamas (and prior to that, the Ukraine conflict) over the past 24 hours should be the same amount of energy we put into condemning our wide open border, which is a war comparable to the attack on Israel in terms of bloodshed — but made worse by the fact that it’s occurring in our very own backyard,” he posted. “We shouldn’t be beating the war drum, however tragic the events may be overseas, until we resolve our domestic problems first.”
Trump announced last week that he picked Ingrassia to serve as head of the US Office of Special Counsel, a position that requires confirmation by the Senate.
The Office of Special Counsel is an independent federal ethics agency that works to ensure fairness and accountability within the government. Ingrassia’s role, if he is confirmed, would involve investigating claims of wrongdoing, such as retaliation against whistleblowers or improper political activity in the workplace. The official can recommend disciplinary action and reports serious findings to Congress, helping to protect federal employees and uphold the integrity of the civil service system.
Ingrassia also maintains a relationship with and defends alleged sex trafficker Andrew Tate, who has promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories on social media. Tate wrote on X/Twitter that he refuses to “listen to women, Mexicans, or Jews” and that Jewish people are “subverting Western populations into mass genetic suicide” by advancing what he described as misguided immigration policy. Tate has also accused Israel of committing a “genocide” in Gaza against Palestinians and engaged in Holocaust denialism.
The furor surrounding Ingrassia is the latest dustup the Trump administration has had regarding controversial personnel and antisemitism.
The Trump administration’s appointment of Kingsley Wilson as deputy press secretary at the Department of Defense also sparked widespread criticism due to her history of promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories and extremist views. Wilson, formerly associated with the Center for Renewing America, has a documented history of social media posts endorsing white supremacist ideologies, including claims about the 1915 lynching of Leo Frank — a Jewish man whose wrongful conviction and subsequent murder galvanized the founding of the Anti-Defamation League. In 2023, she tweeted that Frank “raped & murdered a 13-year-old girl,” a statement aligning with neo-Nazi narratives.
Late last month, the Pentagon announced that Wilson will be promoted and serve as the department’s new press secretary.
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US Congress Pushes to Designate Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization
US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaking at a press conference about the United States restricting weapons for Israel, at the US Capitol, Washington, DC. Photo: Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Members of the US Congress are moving quickly to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as an official terrorist organization.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced on Tuesday that he will reintroduce an updated version of the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act.
“In the coming days, I will be circulating and re-introducing a modernized version of the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act, which I have been pushing for my entire Senate career,” he posted on X/Twitter. “The Muslim Brotherhood used the Biden administration to consolidate and deepen their influence, but the Trump administration and Republican Congress can no longer afford to avoid the threat they pose to Americans and American national security.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) sent a letter to the White House on Tuesday asking US President Donald Trump to open an investigation into the Muslim Brotherhood, saying that the group maintains “a documented history of promoting extremist ideologies.”
“Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE all declared the Muslim Brotherhood an FTO [foriegn terrorist organization] over a decade ago, and France is considering its own action. Following suit would help the US disrupt the Muslim Brotherhood’s ability to recruit and finance terror around the globe,” Moskowitz wrote on X/Twitter.
The push to proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood gained momentum last month, when the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) organized a meeting to help members of Congress develop “strategies to ban the growing threat of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States,” the research group said in a press release.
“The Muslim Brotherhood appears to be the intellectual inspiration behind all Islamist groups (and their jihadist offshoots) that operate today, such as ISIS, al Qaeda, and Hamas,” ISGAP wrote in a 2023 report. “Sunni jihadist groups are grounded in the firm ideological roots that key MB [Muslim Brotherhood] ideologues pioneered in the last century.”
Hamas, the internationally designated terrorist group that has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades and perpetrated the largest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust with its invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, is a Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. Both Cruz and Moskowitz noted that Hamas is a “branch” and an “affiliate” of the global Islamist movement.
While several countries in the Middle East have already classified the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, the United States has yet to do the same, despite several attempts by Congress over the years. During Trump’s first term in office, officials in both the White House and Congress took initial steps toward sanctioning the group’s international branches, but a formal designation was never finalized.
US lawmakers believe they have identified multiple pathways to economically cripple the internationally designated terror organization. Congress could combat the Muslim Brotherhood by designating it a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) or placing it on the Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) list. Both options would levy heavy penalties on the group through methods such as freezing its assets or sanctioning its leadership.
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