Lebanon allows Iranian suitcases in after airport controversy

The Lebanese Foreign Ministry announced Friday that “two small diplomatic suitcases carried by an Iranian diplomat aboard a Mahan Air flight” were allowed to enter through Beirut airport after the Iranian embassy “clarified that they contained papers, documents and cash for paying operational expenses exclusively related to the embassy’s operations.”

“Accordingly, the two suitcases were allowed to enter as per the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” the Foreign Ministry added.

The Iranian flight was delayed upon arrival and searched at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport on Thursday, after Lebanon reportedly received intelligence of an Iranian plan to smuggle cash into the country to fund Hezbollah.

According to reports in Lebanon, members of an Iranian diplomatic delegation aboard the plane tried to prevent it from being searched, citing diplomatic immunity, but after security forces were called in, the plane was eventually scanned.

Lebanon’s caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi confirmed the incident in a statement saying “the Iranian Mahan Air plane is now being searched bag by bag at Beirut airport.”

Citing defense sources, Lebanese media also reported that an Iranian diplomat was removed from the flight and detained after refusing to allow his personal belongings to be searched by airport authorities. One report said the contents of the diplomat’s bag were confiscated by Lebanese authorities after cash was found in his belongings.

According to the reports, “intensive negotiations” were held between Lebanese and Iranian authorities, who said the contents of the diplomat’s bag were solely intended for use at the Iranian embassy, and are protected under international law.

Hezbollah supporters meanwhile staged a motorbike protest on the airport road to denounce the incident, as an apparently Lebanese passenger of the plane decried in a video circulated online that Beirut’s airport has turned into “Tel Aviv’s airport.”