Lebanon's Minister of Transport, Fayez Rassamny, assured Saturday that Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport is operating normally and that national carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) continues to fly « normally », according to Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA).
Reaching the airport is far from risk-free © Mena Today
Lebanon's Minister of Transport, Fayez Rassamny, assured Saturday that Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport is operating normally and that national carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) continues to fly « normally », according to Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA).
The reassurance, however, tells only part of the story.
MEA is now virtually the only airline still serving Beirut, as foreign carriers have suspended their flights one by one - some on a day-by-day basis, others for defined periods - in the shadow of the US-Israeli war against Iran and the ongoing conflict engulfing the region.
The airport's continued operation comes with an uncomfortable geographical reality: the only express road connecting central Beirut to the airport runs alongside the southern suburbs, Hezbollah's stronghold and one of the most heavily targeted areas in Israeli strikes.
Every passenger, every crew member, every flight that lands or departs Beirut does so within earshot - and eyesight - of an active war zone.
That Middle East Airlines continues to fly under these conditions is either an act of remarkable resilience or extraordinary risk, possibly both.
For Lebanon, a country already on the edge, keeping its airport open is not just a logistical necessity. It is the last lifeline connecting a besieged nation to the outside world.
Iran has warned the United States that it would respond forcefully to an Israeli offensive on a mountainous ridge in southern Lebanon where Iranian military personnel are holed up alongside Hezbollah fighters, three officials briefed on the message told Reuters.
Russia has secretly helped Iran develop advanced supersonic cruise missiles, in what the Financial Times describes as one of the most significant known transfers of strategic military technology from Moscow to Tehran, according to an investigation published Wednesday.
NATO member Turkey would consider taking its relations with the China and Russia-led security bloc, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, to a higher level, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.
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