To prevent Hezbollah from using it to smuggle Iranian weapons
Political circles in Tel Aviv revealed that Israel threatened the Lebanese government to bomb Beirut airport, if it was used for smuggling Iranian weapons, as it did with Syria.
The Israeli sources said that they were aware that Iran was trying to use a new smuggling corridor through Beirut following the failure of the Damascus corridor, and that Tel Aviv was investigating Tehran’s attempt to smuggle weapons through civilian flights on Iranian planes to Beirut airport.
The sources confirmed that the continuous Israeli air raids on Syria in recent years have proven their worth and thwarted most of the Iranian arms smuggling operations to its armed militias in Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon. It was expected that Iran would search for other ways for these weapons, but Israel would not deal leniently with the transfer of Iranian weapons through Beirut airport.
And it conveyed, through a third party, a message that it will carry out harsh military strikes once morest the airport in the event that any Iranian weapons, ammunition or military equipment reach it.
Other sources in Tel Aviv linked the news of the use of Beirut airport to transport Iranian arms shipments and the visit made by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah to Damascus, and his meeting with President Bashar al-Assad. She said that this visit, which took place two weeks ago, dealt with the difficulties facing Iran and Hezbollah in Syria as a result of the Israeli strikes.
Israel had bombed Beirut airport in late 1968 in response to an attack carried out by the “Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine” on an Israeli civilian plane.
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