Half a tonne of TNT and C-4 is now a diplomatic problem. Last week Lebanese security forces stopped a truck at a checkpoint near Dahr al-Baidar, on the mountain road that links the capital with the Bekaa Valley, and found roughly 780 kilograms of explosives on board, according to judicial officials. Two men were detained.
On Thursday Hezbollah publicly admitted that the cargo was its own. Lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told reporters at parliament that the material belonged to the group and had been meant only for operations against Israeli troops in the south. He rejected claims that it was linked to assassination plans and asked for the load, the vehicle and the two detainees to be handed back.
Washington responded within hours. Before the day was out, America’s top diplomat Marco Rubio was on the phone to Beirut, speaking with head of state Joseph Aoun. A State Department official said Rubio wanted everyone who paid for or organised the transport held to account and made clear that giving the material back was unacceptable to Washington. Aoun replied that the army is enforcing the government’s decisions on confiscating weapons and stopping smuggling, and promised that only those proven innocent would walk free.
The case lands on a sensitive spot. In March the cabinet declared Hezbollah’s armed activity illegal, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has called the shipment a “criminal operation” and ordered an investigation. Handing the cargo back would undercut that policy; keeping it risks a clash with a movement that still has strong political allies.
Aoun used the call to ask Rubio to push Israel to halt the air raids on the south of the country, which continue despite the 2024 ceasefire. Rubio, for his part, criticised a 1955 law banning contact with Israelis, which is being used against Lebanon’s ambassador in Washington. Military officers from the US, Lebanon and Israel are due to gather in Tampa in the coming days to review the slow Israeli withdrawal from parts of the south.
