Lebanese authorities said on Monday they had extended the suspension of inbound and outbound flights to Iran indefinitely, after originally barring Iranian planes from landing in Beirut until February 18.

Authorities decided to “mandate the Minister of Public Works and Transport to extend the suspension period of flights to and from Iran,” the Lebanese presidency’s spokeswoman Najat Charafeddine told reporters after a cabinet meeting, without specifying when flights would resume.

The announcement came after Lebanon last week denied permission for two Iranian flights to land in Beirut, following allegations publicized by the Israel Defense Forces that Tehran was using civilian aircraft to smuggle cash to Beirut to arm the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah.

Lebanese security forces told AFP earlier that the ban came after the United States, which helped broker a November 27 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, warned that the IDF might shoot the planes down.

The IDF said last week that the Iran-backed terror group was using the funds to rearm and that it had passed information on the smuggling attempts to a US-led committee supervising the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said on Thursday it had “temporarily rescheduled” some flights, including from Iran, until February 18 as it was implementing “additional security measures.”

The move prompted protests from supporters of Hezbollah, who blocked the road to the country’s only international airport in Beirut.

Charafeddine said authorities had given “strict instructions” to security forces not to allow the airport road to be closed and to reinforce the inspection of all planes at the airport.

Lebanon’s top diplomat will also follow up on the matter and “ensure the return of Lebanese travelers who are still in Iran,” she said.

On Friday, as Hezbollah supporters blocked the road to Beirut airport, a United Nations convoy was attacked, leaving a vehicle torched and two peacekeepers wounded.

On Sunday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem charged that the government’s decision to halt flights from Iran was “implementing an Israeli order.”

Following the announcement last week, Iran said in turn that it would not allow Lebanese flights to land until its flights were cleared to land in Beirut.

The November 27 agreement between Israel and Hezbollah ended two months of full-scale war that followed months of lower-intensity cross-border exchanges, which the Iran-backed terror group began, unprovoked, one day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel triggered the war in Gaza. Hezbollah said its attacks were in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

By the time the ceasefire came into effect, Israel had eliminated most of Hezbollah’s senior leadership. It also targeted the Al-Qard Al-Hassan financial institution, which has over 30 outlets across Lebanon, which both Jerusalem and Washington say was being used by Hezbollah for money laundering and terrorism financing, assertions the group denies.

The IDF is set to withdraw from all Lebanese border villages and towns by Tuesday morning under the truce agreement, aside from five strategic positions near the border.