WarSclerotic

Iran has been using at least one of its civilian air ‎carriers to smuggle weapons to Lebanon, where they ‎have been delivered to Hezbollah, its proxy in the ‎Middle East, Fox News reported Tuesday.‎

Quoting an unnamed Western intelligence source, the report suggested that Iran has been using Qeshm ‎Fars Air flights from Tehran to Beirut to ‎smuggle weapons to the Shiite terrorist group over ‎the past two months. ‎

According to the report, “The first flight, on July ‎‎9, involved a Boeing 747 that departed from an air ‎force base in Tehran, stopped for a short layover at ‎the international airport in Damascus, Syria, and ‎then continued with a rather ‘uncharacteristic ‎flight path’ to Beirut.”‎

FlightRadar24/Google Maps

Flight data showed that the route passed over ‎northern Lebanon, straying from any commonly used ‎commercial flight path. ‎

The second flight took place on Aug. 2, and while it ‎did not ‎stop in Damascus, it followed an ‎irregular ‎route north of Syria rarely used by commercial ‎airliners.‎

‎”The Iranians are trying to come up with new ways ‎and routes to smuggle weapons from Iran to their ‎allies in the Middle East, testing and defying the ‎West’s abilities to track them down,” one ‎intelligence official told the news network. ‎

Western intelligence officials believe Qeshm ‎Fars ‎flights carried materials necessary to produce ‎precision weapons in Iranian factories inside ‎Lebanon.

Fox noted that Qeshm Fars Air is believed to be one ‎of the “various pseudo-civilian airlines used for ‎arms-smuggling” by the Revolutionary Guards and its ‎elite black-ops arm, the Quds Force.