'Come see for yourselves': Beirut airport hosts media tour after weapons claims

Lebanese authorities hosted an open tour of Beirut-Rafic Al Hariri International Airport on Monday, inviting press and diplomats to observe the compound for themselves in response to a UK newspaper’s allegations that weapons are stockpiled there by the powerful Hezbollah militia.

More than 100 journalists and diplomats attended the tour of the airport’s numerous warehouses. The National found no sign of weapons in any of the depots.

The allegations from The Telegraph newspaper, which cited anonymous “whistle-blowers” working at the civilian airport, detailed a large cache of weapons.

The report was immediately ridiculed by Lebanon’s Transport Minister Ali Hamieh, who dismissed the article as baseless and badly sourced, and immediately called on the media to tour the site.

"We've invited embassies and journalists to the airport to come and see for themselves," he said at a press conference held after the tour.

The Telegraph, citing unnamed airport workers, reported “unusually big boxes” had been arriving at the site from Iran since November.

“I would have preferred for The Telegraph to use credible sources, like the British Ministry of Transport which inspected the airport just six months ago,” Mr Hamieh said.

The article also detailed the kind of weapons reportedly stored at the airport, even though the employees quoted admitted they could not see inside the boxes.

The National spoke to an airport lorry driver who carries large quantities of goods into a warehouse run by Lebanon’s Customs Authority.

“I’ve been doing this job for 10 years and I’ve never seen any sign of weapons being smuggled or stored here,” he said.

A worker stands next to packages inside a cargo centre during the tour of Beirut airport. EPA

A customs officer who spoke to The National, under the condition of anonymity, said airport employees were not mandated to inspect boxes.

“Only customs officials can inspect merchandise,” he said. “An ordinary airport worker would not be able to see what was inside.”

Lebanon and Hezbollah have been engaged in daily cross-border battles, toeing the line between all-out war and a contained conflict, since October 8.

The Telegraph report has led to fears among many Lebanese that the claims could be used as a justification for Israel to bomb the civilian compound.

Those fears were exacerbated by the Israeli army’s response to the report on Sunday.

"If Hezbollah attacks Israeli civilians from these sites, the [Israeli army] will have no choice but to respond, thereby possibly risking Lebanese civilians,” Israel’s military said in a statement.

The airport was bombed by Israel during the 2006 Lebanon-Israel war, forcing it to close for the duration of the 33-day conflict. The Israeli air force justified the strike by claiming the site was being used by Hezbollah to receive weapons shipments.

A journalist for a pan-Arab newspaper, speaking under the condition of anonymity, said the media tour “was the only possible response by the Lebanese government to The Telegraph article".

“I think it was an attempt at transparency and to prove that the airport was a civilian facility and not a military one,” he told The National.

“The purpose of the tour was to show the world that the Lebanese government has nothing to hide and that Beirut airport is not a weapons storage facility. The former goal was accomplished, the latter is impossible to know without bringing in experts.

He added: “Evidence should be brought forward that indicates that the Beirut airport is used is a weapons storage facility ... before we take the accusations that The Telegraph article levelled seriously."

The Old Slave and the Mastiff

Patrick Chamoiseau

Translated from the French and Creole by Linda Coverdale

Company profile

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Founders: Joe Franklin and Milos Savic

Launched: February 2020

Size: 10,000 users by the end of July and a goal of 200,000 users by the end of the year

Employees: Five

Based: Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai

Financing stage: Two seed rounds – the first sourced from angel investors and the founders' personal savings

Second round raised Dh720,000 from silent investors in June this year

At Everton Appearances: 77; Goals: 17

At Manchester United Appearances: 559; Goals: 253

Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”