Lebanon Tells Iran Its Flights to Beirut Suspended till Feb 18

 Members of the Lebanese army walk, as supporters of Hezbollah attend a protest organized by them against what they said was violation of national sovereignty, near Beirut international airport, Lebanon, February 15, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of the Lebanese army walk, as supporters of Hezbollah attend a protest organized by them against what they said was violation of national sovereignty, near Beirut international airport, Lebanon, February 15, 2025. (Reuters)
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Lebanon Tells Iran Its Flights to Beirut Suspended till Feb 18

 Members of the Lebanese army walk, as supporters of Hezbollah attend a protest organized by them against what they said was violation of national sovereignty, near Beirut international airport, Lebanon, February 15, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of the Lebanese army walk, as supporters of Hezbollah attend a protest organized by them against what they said was violation of national sovereignty, near Beirut international airport, Lebanon, February 15, 2025. (Reuters)

Lebanese aviation officials have told Iran that Iranian flights to Beirut are suspended until Tuesday, Hossein Pourfarzaneh, head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization, was quoted as saying on Sunday by the Iranian state news agency IRNA.

Lebanon denied permission for Iranian flights to land in Beirut twice this week after the United States warned Israel might shoot the planes down, a Lebanese security source told AFP Saturday.

The first incident occurred on Thursday, when Lebanese authorities sent word to Iran that a Beirut-bound flight should not take off.

“Through the Americans, Israel informed the Lebanese state that it would target the airport if the Iranian plane landed in Lebanon,” the source said.

“The American side told the Lebanese side that Israel was serious about its threat,” the source added.

Lebanon’s public works and transport ministry then refused clearance for the flight, after consulting the prime minister and president, the source added.

The message was passed on before the flight took off, said the source.

Another flight was also barred from taking off from Iran on Friday, which prompted protests in Lebanon from supporters of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, who blocked the road to the country’s only international airport.

“The security of Beirut airport takes precedence over any other consideration,” Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Saturday.

“And the safety of travelers as well as the safety of Lebanese citizens are elements on which we will not compromise.”

Israel has on several occasions accused Hezbollah of using the airport in Beirut to bring in weapons from Iran. The group -- and Lebanese leaders -- have denied those allegations.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place in Lebanon since November 27, after more than a year of hostilities and two of months of open war between Israel and Hezbollah there.



Israel Approves Controversial Project in West Bank

A Palestinian woman is reflected in a bulletproof window at an Israeli checkpoint in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, on March 28, 2025, as she arrives to travel to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City for the last Friday noon prayer of Ramadan. (AFP)
A Palestinian woman is reflected in a bulletproof window at an Israeli checkpoint in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, on March 28, 2025, as she arrives to travel to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City for the last Friday noon prayer of Ramadan. (AFP)
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Israel Approves Controversial Project in West Bank

A Palestinian woman is reflected in a bulletproof window at an Israeli checkpoint in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, on March 28, 2025, as she arrives to travel to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City for the last Friday noon prayer of Ramadan. (AFP)
A Palestinian woman is reflected in a bulletproof window at an Israeli checkpoint in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, on March 28, 2025, as she arrives to travel to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City for the last Friday noon prayer of Ramadan. (AFP)

The Israeli security Cabinet approved on Sunday the construction of a road for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Critics say it will open the door for Israel to annex a key area just outside Jerusalem, further undermining the feasibility of a future Palestinian state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the project is meant to streamline travel for Palestinians in communities near the large Jewish settlement of Maaleh Adumim.

Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog group, said the road will divert Palestinian traffic outside of Maaleh Adumim and the surrounding area known as E1, a tract of open land deemed essential for the territorial contiguity of a future state.

That will make it easier for Israel to annex E1, according to Hagit Ofran, a settlement expert with the group, because Israel can claim there is no disruption to Palestinian movement.

Critics say Israeli settlements and other land grabs make a contiguous future state increasingly impossible. Several roads in the West Bank are meant for use by either Israelis or Palestinians, which international rights groups say is part of an apartheid system, allegations Israel rejects.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three for their future state. A two-state solution is widely seen as the only way to resolve the decades-old conflict.