Beirut international airport. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — The first Italian military plane carrying humanitarian aid for earthquake-struck Syria has landed at Beirut international airport, the state-run National News Agency reported Saturday.
Lebanon's caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib had met with US Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea on Friday to discuss the opening of the Beirut international airport and all Lebanese ports to receive humanitarian aid destined for Syria.
A Ministry of Public Works spokesperson told L'Orient Today Friday that “Lebanon has opened its airport and all its ports for organizations, companies, and countries that want to send humanitarian aid to Syria through Lebanon,” because “some have reservations about landing in Syria directly."
The US Treasury Department also announced in a statement Friday that, until Aug. 8, 2023, it will authorize “all transactions related to earthquake relief efforts in Syria that would otherwise be prohibited [with some exceptions] by the Syrian Sanctions Regulations.”