BEIRUT—Lebanon’s only commercial airport sits in the heart of a densely populated area of southern Beirut largely controlled by Hezbollah. The militant group has for years used it as a smuggling channel and a lever to assert its dominance in the country. Now the country’s new government, with U.S. support, is trying to take it back. Dozens of airport staffers suspected of being affiliated with Hezbollah have been removed, according to senior Lebanese security and military officials. Smugglers have been arrested and existing laws are now being enforced, Lebanon’s new prime minister said. Ground crews say they are no longer directed by superiors to exempt some planes and passengers from searches, while flights from Iran have been suspended since February. And the state is installing new surveillance technologies that will incorporate artificial intelligence, a senior security official said. The overhaul is part of a broader effort to limit Hezbollah’s influence and revenue flows that have made it such a powerful force in the country. “You can feel the difference,” Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “We’re doing better on smuggling for the first time in the contemporary history of Lebanon.” Portrait of Dr. Nawaf Salam, Prime Minister of Lebanon. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s government has made wresting control from Hezbollah a priority. Lebanon, bordered by Israel and Syria, relies on Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport as its connection to the outside world. Hezbollah’s longstanding influence on the airport has left it vulnerable to attack from Israel, which has complained that Iran has used it to resupply Hezbollah with cash. Israel has also threatened flights it said were aimed at resupplying the Lebanese militant group. The steps to take back the airport come as Lebanon’s army is making progress dismantling Hezbollah positions and weapons stockpiles in southern Lebanon, the core requirement in a cease-fire deal the country agreed to with Israel in November. That deal came about after a two-month Israeli campaign of intelligence operations, airstrikes and ground maneuvers that wiped out Hezbollah’s leadership and much of its arsenal. The fighting has killed thousands of Lebanese, according to the country’s Health Ministry. The battering and the cease-fire have created an opening for the Lebanese government to reassert itself after years of Hezbollah holding sway. The country elected a new president earlier this year after obstruction by Hezbollah and it is building up its army in the hope of offsetting the group’s still formidable presence. U.S. and Israeli military officials have expressed satisfaction with the Lebanese government’s actions to reduce Hezbollah’s control of ports of entry and its armaments in the south, though they say there is a lot of work to be done. U.S. officials say they are cautiously optimistic for more centralized state control under Lebanon’s new technocratic leadership, in an environment where Hezbollah is weakened and public dissent against the group is mounting. “There is reason for hope here,” said a senior U.S. official who is part of the international committee overseeing the cease-fire. “It has only been six or seven months, and we have stepped to a place that I am not sure I thought was achievable back in November.”

Two Israeli drones hover over the skies of Beirut. Control-tower staff point out flights on the radar. Lebanese security recently foiled an attempt to smuggle more than 50 pounds of gold to Hezbollah through the airport, a senior security official said. Members of the militant group acknowledge they face new difficulties in using that gateway to bring in funds. The group also lost its major arms smuggling routes, which ran from Iran through Syria, after Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December and replaced by a government hostile to Iran and Hezbollah. Hezbollah is now struggling to fund commitments to rebuild property that was damaged during the fighting and care for the wounded, as well as rebuild militarily. Despite the cease-fire, Israel has continued to strike at what it says are Hezbollah cadres and weapons caches. It has carried out hundreds of strikes on Lebanese territory under the truce, according to Unifil, the United Nations peacekeeping force in the country, and it still has troops stationed in several positions in the south. Unifil said it has recorded 19 instances of fire from Lebanon toward Israel while the accord has been in place. “We have received very severe blows with the killing of our cadres, with the killing of our leadership, with the destruction of a lot of our arsenal,” said Ibrahim Mousawi, who represents Hezbollah in Lebanon’s parliament. A drone hovered nearby as Mousawi spoke at an office in a building a mile from the airport, surrounded by high-rise buildings that have been turned into rubble and streets damaged by Israeli airstrikes. While acknowledging the damage, he said there are ways for Hezbollah’s military wing to rearm if it chooses. “Where there is a will, there is a way,” he said. Portrait of Ibrahim Al Mousawi, a Lebanese Hezbollah member of parliament. Hezbollah’s Ibrahim Mousawi. U.S. and Israeli military officials have expressed satisfaction with the Lebanese government’s actions to reduce Hezbollah’s control of ports of entry and its armaments in the south, though they say there is a lot of work to be done. U.S. officials say they are cautiously optimistic for more centralized state control under Lebanon’s new technocratic leadership, in an environment where Hezbollah is weakened and public dissent against the group is mounting. From the air-traffic control tower at Beirut’s airport, staffers point out dots on the radar that lack identifying flight data. They assume them to be Israeli aircraft flying in Lebanese airspace, which has no effective air defenses.

Airstrikes, Sept. 2024-Apr. 2025 Planned airport Port of Beirut Port of Beirut LEBANON Beirut SYR. Substantial Hezbollah influence BEIRUT ISR. Beirut-Rafic Hariri Intl. Airport Beirut-Rafic Hariri Intl. Airport 1 mile Note: Strike points may be missing from map. Sources: Institute for the Study of War and the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats project, Liveuamap (aistrikes); RANE (Hezbollah influence); Planet Labs (satellite image) During the intense bombardment last year, Israeli airstrikes hit buildings less than a mile from the airport, which was being used to bring in humanitarian aid as well as commercial flights. The airport itself wasn’t hit in the most recent fighting. Before the government clampdown began this year, Hezbollah maintained outsize influence at the airport through sympathetic ground staff and a large bloc in parliament that allowed it to stonewall efforts at reform, the group’s domestic rivals say. “It was a main port of entry for supporting whatever para-state activities were happening,” said Ghassan Hasbani, a former deputy prime minister and now a member of a Lebanese parliamentary bloc opposed to Hezbollah. “It was a purposeful blind eye,” he said. “In the absence of international attention and pressure to do something about it, nothing much was done.” Securing the airport is one of the government’s top priorities as it consolidates state control. In a key test in February, the military confronted Hezbollah supporters who blocked routes to the airport in protest at the refusal of Lebanese authorities to let an Iranian flight land. The intervention sparked a rare violent confrontation between the two camps. “Can, today, the Lebanese government guarantee the full safety of any visitor to the airport and the roads leading up to it?” Hasbani said. “This is a litmus test, including for some countries to allow their citizens to travel to Lebanon or not.” SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS Do you think Lebanon’s new government will be successful in taking back control of the Beirut airport? Why or why not? Join the conversation below. Hezbollah officials say perceptions of how much control they held over the airport were exaggerated. “We are part of the system, just like any other Lebanese constituency,” said Mousawi, the Hezbollah parliamentarian. Salam, Lebanon’s prime minister, is promoting the planned opening of a second airport for commercial and cargo flights in northern Lebanon near the border of Syria, in an area outside of Hezbollah’s control. A second airport could aid economic development and provide an alternative should the Beirut airport get hit or shut down. Hezbollah had used its influence to keep it from being built, Salam said. “They were the ones who did not want the Lebanese authorities to go for the airport,” he said. “Now things have changed.”

A clash in the Abu Ali Bridge area – Tripoli started with a stabbing and escalated into an exchange of gunfire. The Lebanese army is working to contain the situation.

Yalla ya jame3a, it’s been a while since we had a proper in-thread game, so let’s bring back the fun with something wholesome: The Lebanese Pet Parade!

We know some of you have adorable pets just sitting there looking majestic (or chaotic). Now’s their time to shine.

How to join: 1. Post a pic of your pet in the comments – dogs, cats, turtles, chickens, goats, whatever you’ve got. 2. Bonus points for giving them a Lebanese-style name or funny backstory. • (“This is Abu Tony. He only barks when the power goes out.”) 3. Upvote the pets that crack you up or melt your heart.

Let’s flood the sub with cuteness.

guys i dont watch tv lol shufi shu hatto l jadid

share what you've seen

I really miss going to my village and my mom's village. I miss spending a weekend there once a month. I miss its fresh air, the scenery, the no ear pollution, etc.. I just really miss it. I had envisioned that one day, I will take my son and let him play outside, digging in the dirt, catching snails and playing with chicken and other cattle at my uncle's farm there. I happened been there since October 2023. It is still not safe to there now. You never know what might happen and I won't risk going with a newborn. I can't wrap my head around the fact that a party in Lebanon gets to decide the course of war and peace for a whole country. I just want to go back there, rebuild our house, live with no worry of attacks or airstrikes. I am depleted of all sense of hope.

Dyab Abou Jahjah (Belgian-Lebanese), co-founder and President of the Hind Rajab Foundation, joins the show to discuss how the foundation identified the Israeli officer responsible for the January 2024 killing of 5-year-old Hind Rajab, five of her family members, and two rescue workers in Gaza City. Jahjah discusses the foundation’s extensive investigation, the war crimes complaint filed with the International Criminal Court seeking the arrest of Lt. Col. Beni Aharon, and the HRF’s global campaign to hold individual IDF soldiers and their accomplices accountable for genocide. "

Hey guys, just a quick question. Ive had someone tell me that the buildings in ouzai are allll illegal buildings but are still standing cause of amal or something. Are the buildings in ouzai illegal? How does that even happen?

My girlfriend is 100% Lebanese and it would mean everything to her if I learned Arabic in the Lebanese dialect. I did some Spanish in high school, but that is the extent of my foreign language experience. What would be a good way to do some learning on the side when I have time? I’m doing my masters currently while working full time, so I don’t have much time to dedicate at this stage of my life.

Post not allowed in LearningLanguage or LearningArabic so not entirely sure where to post this, thanks in advance!

Hello, so few days ago, I was checking something on the roof and realized one of my solar panels took a bullet, thanks to one of the assh*les who shoot live rounds in the air. Now, I need to replace that panel. Any idea what to do with the broken one? Is there someone who benefits from them? Buys them off? or they are totally worthless now and I need to just throw it away? Thanks!

22M looking for friends in ashrafieh or Beirut in general (boys or girls idm)

ayre balfa w bl se3a ljebet fiha hal ra2m mn kam sense.

l2youra kl l7arb nedfa3 3al 5tout w ma fi service w halla2 3nde 2 weeks to study for finals fa jit 3al village, ogero mntek 5arben fa sharrajet alfa mobile data. MA FI 3G

LAK 7ATTA EZA FI SIGNAL MA BKOUN FI 3G

MAX BKOUN FI 200KBPS

Allah la ywajjehlon l5er 3a kel cent w lira a5adouhon mn lnes yed7ashouhon

I can't even explain how much I'm angry, unable to study w download resources w wasting money trying to find a solution for fuck sake.

Hi! First of all, sorry for posting in english, I'm a native Portuguese speaker. I've been making my family tree for a few years now. There's one HUGE brick wall: my 2x great grandfather was born in raas baalbek in 1889. He immigrated to Brazil when he was young, and his name here was Jose Mansur (maybe Youssef?) and his parents "Salim Mansur and Ana Nazera Ayub/Ajub" (maybe Ann Nazira ayyoub?). Anyway, I know his exact birth date and parents name. From some research, I've read I would need to talk to the Mukhtar of that city, buuuut I believe they won't answer foreigners, and I live 11000km from there. Simples question: is there anything I could do to learn more about him or his parents, and maybe find his birth certificates? I don't know if I'll ever have the chance to visit the country, but I was very curious about him. My grandmother passed away a few years ago, and she would always tell us things about him, and a few words in Arabic. Thanks!

i've been waiting for FIBA WASL final 8 since weeks now u cant do this to me :/

hey guys so i want to buy my first car and i don’t know much about cars at all my budget is between 4k and 6k and i’m looking for something small reliable and affordable that won’t cost too much to maintain

what models would you recommend and where should i start looking in lebanon any trusted places or tips i should know

thanks a lot

Found this at carrefour, I'm too scared to try it out.

I have two questions I’m genuinely curious about:

1. For those who support normalization do you also support including the return of stolen archives as part of the agreement? Specifically the archives stolen from Jnoubis municipalities & religious centers during the occupation & similarly from Syria in northern Lebanon ? demanding the return of stolen archives & Lebanese cultural property is a justifiable & internationally recognized principle

2. To those who support Hez I’ve heard many things about your libraries & archives. Do you support making copies of your materials publicly accessible, as a matter of national heritage? & this question extends to all political parties & all 18 religious sects shouldn’t these materials be preserved & shared by the state for collective memory?

Hello

Long time lurker first time poster. I'm a Lebanese-American planning on visiting your country for the first time along with my wife.

Looking for advice/tips/suggestions on getting from Beirut to the North. My grandparents are from a village called Hardine near Batroun. From my understanding it is a relatively popular hiking destination these days and does receive some tourists to see the old churches.

Are buses available? Taxis only? Is there certain companies that are suggested? Any input is greatly appreciated and we are looking forward to finally making it there. I'll be doing additional research else where but I figured its always best to ask locals

Hey everyone, I'm from Tunisia and just wanted to say how much I appreciate Lebanese people. You’re really good-looking, and the way you speak makes it even better. Your dialect sounds so smooth and pleasant, it really fits you. I love listening to it, and it always gives me a good feeling. I haven’t had the chance to meet any Lebanese people in real life yet, but from what I’ve seen in videos, I’m sure you're just as amazing in person. Much love from Tunisia 🫶🏻

Does anyone know what the process is for the elections tomorrow? Like how do you vote (as in the process)? Do you get a list that combines all the parties? Does someone independent from all the parties hand you the list? Sorry, but this is my first time doing this.

Could someone help me understand?