"Qleyaat Airport (Akkar) and the port of Jounieh (Kesrouan) are vital channels in times of war … They must be reactivated through a historic decision that would entrust them to the Lebanese army. The people will not accept being taken hostage." This Aug. 12 post on X by Salim Sayegh, a Kataeb MP, says out loud what many Lebanese think quietly: Lebanon must have several active airports and ports, as is the case almost everywhere in the world. A necessity that is felt each time that Beirut International Airport is threatened with the shutdown of its activities, due to its geographical location in the heart of Hezbollah's stronghold.

Today, this request is therefore of burning relevance, with fears growing more and more about a possible Israeli strike against the country's only civilian airport, as part of the ongoing war. All the more so after the assassination, at the end of July, of Fouad Shukur, Hezbollah's military commander, in the heart of the southern suburbs, and the response that could follow. Except the procedure still comes up against a major obstacle: The same Hezbollah that fears seeing a new airport relaunched far from its incontestable stronghold now holds the Ministry of Public Works, exercising supervisory power over public transport organizations.

This is not the first time that the reactivation of the Rene Moawad Airport (named after the first president of the post-Taif Lebanon who was elected in 1989) in Qleyaat has been brought up again. Shortly before the war in Gaza, it was the subject of a political campaign led in particular by the National Moderation bloc (mainly Sunni ex-Future Movement MPs from Akkar).

Capitalizing on their centrist position on the political scene, these elected officials had not failed to use this issue in the context of the presidential election. To the point of making their support for a potential candidate conditional on the inclusion of this measure in their program.

"We are still attached to this position," Sajih Attieh, a member of the National Moderation and president of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Works, told L'Orient-Le Jour. "It is not normal for only one airport to be active in a country like Lebanon, especially in times of war," he said, stressing that such an approach "could also contribute to improving economic growth in Akkar, a region long neglected by the state."

According to him, the relaunch of the airport depends only on a decision by the government, in particular by the Minister of Public Works, who is none other than Ali Hamiyeh, one of Hezbollah's representatives in the cabinet.

"We have already discussed the subject with him and with the caretaker prime minister. It is up to them to activate the file as quickly as possible," insisted Attieh.

'The minister buried the project in his drawer'

Attieh suggests that the political decision to revitalize civil aviation activity at this airport has not yet matured. A point on which he is joined by several anti-Hezbollah figures.

"The Minister of [Public] Works has buried the project in his drawer," stated an opposition MP on the condition of anonymity.

Contacted, the minister concerned did not respond.

In 2012, the Lebanese government decided to reopen the airport (which became an air base for the Lebanese army), to expand its surface area and to equip it in order to be able to accommodate travelers but also goods. A decision that went nowhere. A dozen years later, there is nothing to suggest that change is to be expected in the near future, despite "the state of war in which the country finds itself," according to Sayegh.

"When a country's central airport is threatened with paralysis and strikes by the enemy, a state of emergency must be declared. Hence my call for the management of Rene Moawad Airport to be entrusted to the army as soon as possible," he explained to L'Orient-Le Jour, affirming that the quickest route must be taken, that of a decision taken by the government with the green light from the Minister of Public Works. But no one expects Prime Minister Najib Mikati to embark on such an adventure before meeting all the right conditions, so as not to risk alienating Hezbollah, one of the main sponsors of his cabinet.

Except that the opposition does not intend to sit idly by. This is particularly the case of the Renewal bloc, whose three MPs (Michel Moawad, Achraf Rifi and Fouad Makhzoumi) have already signed a bill presented last July by Majd Harb, an unsuccessful candidate in the May 2022 legislative elections and son of Boutros Harb, former MP of Batroun.

In its broad outlines, this project focuses on the "urgent rehabilitation of the military airfields of Qleyaat, Hamat (Batroun) and Rayak (Bekaa) to transform them into dual-use airports, military and civilian.

"We will not allow Hezbollah to continue to take all Lebanese hostage, especially when Lebanon's only airport is threatened by Israel," Rifi told L' Orient-Le Jour, deploring the fact that "it is the deep state controlled by Hezbollah that is preventing this project from seeing the light of day."

"Hezbollah cannot indefinitely control the airport, the port and the land borders of Lebanon for reasons that only serve the Iranian agenda," added Michel Moawad, stating that the opposition will study the next step after the end of Harb's tour to collect the ten signatures required to formalize its proposal.

"We are sure that we can reach the required number. Because all the opposition parties, but also the Free Patriotic Movement (which makes decentralization one of its main talking points) and some independents are ready to countersign it," said an opposition MP.

This camp would thus be ready to deviate from its proposal in principle hostile to the legislation of necessity during a presidential vacancy, as advocated by Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri. But the latter might not hear it that way. A few days ago, he turned a deaf ear to a call from the opposition for a general debate session devoted to the war in southern Lebanon. 

"He is obliged to include on the agenda of any legislative session (dictated by the circumstances of war) the law that we want to be given the character of double urgency. He will not be able to defy us forever," said Moawad.

This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.