Geagea urges govt. meeting over Hezbollah arms reports

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Friday called for an emergency cabinet meeting over media reports claiming that Hezbollah is using Beirut’s airport to bring weapons from Iran.

“This is a delicate, dangerous and emergency matter that requires an urgent and necessary meeting by the caretaker cabinet in order to gather all the needed information and take all the necessary measures to preserve the security and stability of the Lebanese,” Geagea said in a tweet.

“Some matters cannot withstand postponement, procrastination or a cover-up if they are true, that’s why the caretaker cabinet must act quickly, seriously and effectively,” the LF leader added.

Israel’s Channel 12 has reported that Israel is tracking a new Iranian attempt to establish a weapons smuggling route via civilian airline flights to Beirut.

The network said Tehran is using the airline Meraj, which recently started flying a direct route between the two nations’ capitals.

The unsourced report said the new smuggling route is a result of Israel’s activities to thwart Iranian weapons transfers via Damascus.

It also said that Israel has “warned that it could carry out strikes at Beirut’s international airport to thwart weapons deliveries as it has done in Damascus.”

Quoting unnamed sources, the Saudi-owned al-Hadath television has reported that the Iranian airline, which has alleged ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, might transfer arms and sensitive equipment to Hezbollah, noting that the air company’s first flight had taken place on November 14.

The Israeli Intelli Times blog identified the Meraj aircraft flying between Tehran and Beirut as EP-AJI. Flight tracking from Flightradar24 shows that the aircraft has made a number of flights to Beirut recently, “turning its transponder on over Baghdad and over Syria, but keeping it off in much of Iraq and Iran,” Israeli media reports said.