By Nohad Topalian | 2023-09-22

BEIRUT -- It is very likely that Hizbullah is building an airport, in service of Iran, at an airfield in southern Lebanon's Jezzine district, Lebanese political and military officials and a source close to the party told Al-Fassel.

The party controls the area around the airfield and has been restricting access to it, the sources said, blocking local landowners from entering their property.

On September 11, Israel accused Iran of building an airport for "terrorist purposes" in the Birket Jabbour area, 20km from the Israeli border.

Maps and aerial photos of the site show the flags of Iran and Hizbullah flying.

Near an artificial lake known as Birket Jabbour in Jezzine district's Jabal al-Rehan, the airfield sits at an altitude of more than 1,000 meters above sea level, to the west of the southernmost part of the Bekaa Valley.

Based on satellite images, airport construction began in October 2022, and the asphalt for the runway was laid in July, according to various media reports.

Work involving paving the runway, building a helipad and painting the runway with aviation markings was reportedly completed in late August.

While Hizbullah and the Lebanese authorities did not confirm or deny the existence of the airport, following Israel's allegations, Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah on July 12 issued a preemptive rebuke to the curious.

"No one has the right to question his party about what it is building, be it a tent, a house, towers or an airport, as long as it is on Lebanese territory," he said.

The absence of any official statement from the Lebanese state and security services "partially confirms the veracity of what the images show," political writer Alain Sarkis told Al-Fassel.

"According to unofficial information, Jabbour Airport exists and is under the control of Hizbullah, which uses it for small purposes and to launch its drones."

Sarkis said the expansion of Hizbullah's military activity in Syria, Yemen and Iraq "is driving it to equip itself," suggesting that Nasrallah "was not joking when he hinted some time ago that it [Hizbullah] has everything, including an airport."

"Today it is a quasi-airport that is undergoing expansion," Sarkis said.

"So, the question is: Does Hizbullah have a plan to turn it into a civilian airport for its areas connected to Iran and Syria? Until the picture is clear, the information indicates that it is for military and logistical training purposes."

Hizbullah tightens control

Hizbullah is tightening its control "over a vast area around Jezzine, including Birket Jabbour," said Lebanese MP Saeed al-Asmar of the Lebanese Forces bloc, who represents Jezzine district in parliament.

The Iran-backed party has prohibited local "landowners, residents and members of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese from entering our lands that it has seized and turned into military sites away from the watchful eyes of the state," he said.

Al-Asmar said Nasrallah's caginess about the airport "confirms that his project is a foreign one, namely, that he wants to turn Lebanon into an Iranian emirate."

He accused Hizbullah of acting outside the framework of the state and its laws, and of contravening international resolutions related to Lebanon's security.

Hizbullah's development of the Birket Jabbour airstrip is "to be expected," a source close to the party told Al-Fassel, requesting anonymity out of concern for his safety, due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The airstrip is needed "because Hizbullah is developing its electronic infrastructure and using drones, taking advantage of the Russian-Ukrainian war and Iran's involvement in it by supplying Russia with suicide drones," he said.

He explained that Hizbullah "controls the Jezzine region and its heights, from the town of Kfar Houneh and al-Rehan area, to the towns of Aarmta, al-Aishiya and Mlikh, and has turned them into barracks and training camps."

This is because they overlook the southern part of the country, the western side of the Bekaa Valley, and the Israeli border, the source said.

'Operating outside the law'

The Iran-backed party has built residential complexes on the Kfar Houneh-Western Bekaa road to help it secure the route for the passage of its weapons and vehicles, the source said.

Hizbullah is meanwhile "prohibiting people from accessing their lands, which underscores the party's vigilance and state of alert," he added.

"There is no airport in the military sense but rather a site like all the other sites that Hizbullah uses to operate its drones," retired Lebanese general George Nader told Al-Fassel.

"Jabbour Airport has no military value because there are no structural components of an airport, as the satellite images show," he said.

"What's important is the fact that the runway is located in an area that is under the party's total control."

What Hizbullah is doing, Nader said, "is operating outside the law, flouting local and international laws, causing Lebanon to be isolated from its Arab neighbors and holding it hostage."