Islam Times - Hezbollah in Beirut Airport: The Telegraph Blows Its Own Whistles

Islam Times - 169 years of work in media don’t seem enough for a newspaper like the Telegraph to reflect a professional approach in tackling a piece of news. The British paper went beyond that to fake some news citing “whistleblowers” to serve as a report for the “Israeli” enemy.

Stuck in its own mud, the notorious paper published on Sunday, June 23, a piece it claimed to be an “investigation” quoting whistleblowers who claimed that Lebanon's main civilian airport has received a huge cache of Iranian-made weapons, being used by Hezbollah against “Israel.”

Before being edited, the piece was entitled: “Hezbollah stores missiles and explosives at Lebanon’s main airport, whistleblowers claim.” Its summary read: “Terrorists pass through ‘bribed’ customs officers unchallenged with large amounts of Iranian weaponry.”

Within its body, the article said “Hezbollah is storing huge quantities of Iranian weapons, missiles, and explosives in Beirut’s main civilian airport, according to airport whistleblowers.”

Adding fuel to the fire, Abbie Cheeseman, whose name was posted by the Telegraph as the author behind the reckless piece, denied any affiliation with the mentioned content. She posted on her X account the following:

“Hoping it goes without saying, but need to clarify publicly, that I am of course not behind that non-bylined piece in the Telegraph about Beirut airport…

To add to this: I stopped working for The Telegraph last month and had absolutely no prior knowledge of this wildly irresponsible story until it appeared today.”

Although the title was later edited to be “Beirut airport bosses deny it is being used to store Hezbollah weapons,” the previous baseless report can still be used by “Israel” as a pretext to strike Beirut Airport.

Immediately after the circulation of the unfounded news, Lebanon’s Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamieh held a press conference at the Beirut International Airport to dismiss the allegations as “ridiculous.” The minister said his office is in the process of filing a lawsuit against the Telegraph, and that details of the lawsuit would be announced later.

Hamieh then invited journalists and ambassadors to take a tour of the airport’s facilities on Monday morning, to prove that there is nothing to hide.

This is not the first time the infamous paper has done something similar. In late October 2023, during the same period the “Israeli” occupation forces besieged Gaza’s Al-Shifa Medical Complex and started committing massacres against civilians sheltering inside it as well as the hospital’s medical staff, the Telegraph published a piece entitled “What is happening at Al-Shifa hospital and why is it an “Israeli” target?”

In the sense of “legitimizing” the massacres at the complex, which left over 100 Palestinian civilians martyred, and cut the life support many premature babies were in need of, the paper cited the “Israeli” military as claiming that Al-Shifa’s basements are a nerve center of Hamas operations. The Telegraph added that the place served as a portal to the so-called “Gaza Metro,” which it said is the tunnel network used to move fighters and weapons. The “Israeli” army’s claims have been backed by intelligence from Washington, which said that such practices are “a violation of the laws of war,” the Telegraph added.

Less than a month later, it released another piece entitled “Inside the tunnels beneath Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital,” with the summary reading: “The Telegraph has analyzed and geolocated a tranche of footage released by the “Israeli” military showing tunnels with inter-connected rooms.”

Whether “Israel” dares to strike Beirut Airport or doesn’t is not the question. Hezbollah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s equation is set and clear since February 2010: Should “Israel” attack Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Hezbollah will strike Ben Gurion International Airport in “Tel Aviv.”

The question is why did a mysterious “whistleblower” suddenly now find the urge to call the Telegraph and mention Hezbollah’s Security Chief? Could this offer a perfect pretext for an “Israeli” bombardment and hence serve as an intelligence and military achievement after almost 9 months of humiliating defeats in Gaza and South Lebanon?

Whether “Israel” or its mouthpieces, each will receive their due punishment, some in court, others in the battlefield!