Hezbollah supporters staged a protest on Thursday, blocking the road to Beirut’s airport and setting tyres ablaze in response to a decision barring two Iranian planes from landing in the Lebanese capital, according to state media and an airport official.
Demonstrators waved Hezbollah’s yellow flag and carried images of Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli airstrike in September, as well as Iran’s slain Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, AFP footage showed.
The Lebanese army was deployed to the scene, with videos online capturing clashes between soldiers and protesters.
An official at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that Lebanon’s Public Works and Transport Ministry had instructed the airport to notify Iranian carrier Mahan Air that two of its flights would not be permitted to land. The flights, originally scheduled for Thursday and Friday, have been rescheduled for next week, though no reason was given.
The new flight dates align with the deadline for full implementation of the November 27 ceasefire agreement, which ended more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, including two months of intense conflict.