Lebanon’s confrontation with Hezbollah is no longer confined to the issue of the group’s weapons and the implementation of international commitments in the South. It has expanded to a broader campaign to tighten state control over seaports, the airport and border crossings, curbing Hezbollah’s influence and cutting off its illicit sources of funding. Since the election of President Joseph Aoun and the formation of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s government, the authorities have pursued a security and administrative strategy to reassert sovereign control over the country’s land, sea and air entry points. According to security sources, the measures introduced in recent months have gone beyond reorganizing operations at these facilities. They have also struck at Hezbollah’s logistical infrastructure by significantly restricting smuggling routes and disrupting funding channels that operated through the Syrian border, Beirut airport and the Port of Beirut. Hezbollah’s Influence Recedes While anti-smuggling and border-control measures continue to be strengthened, their effects are already visible, with Hezbollah losing influence inside institutions where it once held considerable sway. A source involved in overseeing Lebanon’s land, sea and air crossings told Asharq Al-Awsat that Hezbollah’s influence within these facilities has declined to an unprecedented level since the start of the new administration. The source said the shift has directly affected the group’s financial and logistical capabilities, which, before the latest war, benefited from a different security and administrative environment that allowed goods and cash to move with relatively few constraints. In recent months, the Lebanese state has also imposed a higher level of technical oversight by deploying modern scanners at the Port of Beirut, Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport and the Masnaa border crossing. The equipment has curbed the smuggling of goods, prohibited materials and cash through these facilities. The source added that the illegal crossings which for years served as the backbone of Hezbollah’s logistical network “no longer play the role they once did,” after the Syrian authorities tightened controls on their side of the border in parallel with enhanced Lebanese enforcement. As a result, illegal cross-border traffic has fallen to what the source described as almost negligible levels. A Fundamental Shift The source noted that conditions along the unofficial crossings with Syria have changed dramatically from previous years, when trucks linked to Hezbollah allegedly crossed regularly, taking advantage of a weak state and the marginalization of official institutions in favor of the group and smuggling networks operating within its orbit. The changes have extended beyond the movement of goods to the group’s financing networks. An official source reported a marked decline in attempts to bring bags of cash and gold into Lebanon through the airport, as well as in the smuggling of Captagon pills and hashish, activities the source described as among the most significant illicit operations associated with cross-border trafficking. The source also underscored the importance of the government’s decision to bar Iranian aircraft from landing at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport, saying it had tightened pressure on Hezbollah’s supply channels by closing one of the routes allegedly used to transport cash and other material support to the group. Officials also described the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime as the most significant turning point—and the most severe blow—Hezbollah has faced since its founding. With Syria no longer providing what they described as a secure logistical environment, Hezbollah and Iran have lost one of their principal corridors for moving weapons and funding into Lebanon. A security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Hezbollah’s influence within the institutions overseeing ports and border crossings has become “almost nonexistent” following a series of security and administrative measures aimed at rebuilding oversight systems at the Port of Beirut, Rafic Hariri International Airport and the Masnaa crossing. According to the source, the measures included the reassignment of numerous security and administrative personnel believed to have been under Hezbollah’s influence and who allegedly facilitated the passage of goods on an almost daily basis. The restructuring, the source said, closed loopholes that had long represented vulnerabilities within the agencies responsible for monitoring these facilities. The source added that the authorities have not limited their efforts to administrative reshuffles. They have also launched investigations and legal proceedings against individuals suspected of facilitating the passage of goods, bags of cash and jewelry on Hezbollah’s behalf in recent months, as part of a broader policy aimed at dismantling the group’s networks of influence within public institutions.
