Lebanon seized $2.5 million in cash from a man arriving from Turkey on Friday, the finance ministry said, with three sources saying the money was destined for the Hezbollah terror group.
One of the sources said it was the first time such a seizure had been made. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
“The detainee and the seized funds will be handed over to the investigation division at the General Directorate of General Security,” Lebanon’s finance ministry said in a statement, without making a reference to Hezbollah.
The terms of a ceasefire agreed by Israel and Hezbollah in November require the Lebanese army to deploy into south Lebanon as Israeli troops and Hezbollah withdraw forces.
Iran-backed Hezbollah was the most powerful force in Lebanese politics but its influence and resources took a hit during its year-long conflict with Israel.
Its weakened stature has been reflected in Lebanon’s post-war politics, with the group unable to impose its will in the formation of a new government and language legitimizing its arsenal omitted from the new cabinet’s policy statement.
Last month, Israel’s UN ambassador accused Hezbollah of trying “to regain strength and rearm with the assistance of Iran.” A senior Lebanese source close to Hezbollah denied the allegations.
Lebanon halted flights from Iran this month indefinitely after the Israeli military accused Tehran of using civilian aircraft to smuggle cash to Beirut to arm Hezbollah.
The move prompted protests from supporters of Hezbollah. A United Nations convoy was attacked, leaving a vehicle torched and two peacekeepers wounded.
Lebanese security forces said 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.
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem charged that the government’s decision to halt flights from Iran was “implementing an Israeli order.”
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 Hamas 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.