The Cradle reports: “The U.S. embassy in Lebanon has blocked the establishment of a humanitarian air bridge between Baghdad and Beirut, insisting instead that any humanitarian aid for those displaced by the Israeli war be delivered via Jordan ‘for inspection first,’ according to a report by Lebanese daily Al Akhbar.”
HALA JABER, @HalaJaber
Award-winning journalist Jaber is author of the book Hezbollah: Born With a Vengeance.
She posted: “The U.S. embassy … is now imposing restrictions on certain flights bringing humanitarian aid to the country, forcing them to first land in Jordan for inspection. The embassy in Awkar [near Beirut] has also threatened Lebanon’s national carrier MEA with sanctions, should it transport injured people for treatment abroad. …
“Awkar also forced Middle East Airlines to comply with its orders not to transport injured people from Lebanon on its flights for treatment abroad, especially those injured in the pager and telecommunications bombings on 16 and 17 of September, by threatening to impose sanctions on MEA should it disobey. …
“There have always been questions and raised eyebrows as to why Washington needed to build a mammoth embassy, sprawling over a 43-acre site at an estimated cost of $1 billion, in this tiny country. The complex located in the suburbs of Awkar, is about 13kms (8 miles) from the center of Beirut. It is almost two-and-a-half times the size of the land the White House sits on and more than 21 soccer fields. It is the second largest embassy in the world after Iraq’s. …
“Then you have some … claiming Lebanon is occupied by Iran, when in reality it is the U.S. that is the de facto occupier of this country.”
Jaber also wrote the book The Flying Carpet to Baghdad: One Woman’s Fight for Two Orphans of War.