October 23, 2026
The file of explosive shipments seized in Lebanon has entered a very sensitive stage, in light of the continuing political and governmental debate over the nature of the issue and ways to address it judicially, amid official confirmations of its security seriousness.
In this context, Minister of Justice Adel Nassar, during an exclusive interview with Al-Arabiya, described the shipment, the ownership of which Hezbollah acknowledged, as posing an “imminent danger” to the country’s security, pointing out the possibility of it being used to carry out attacks inside Lebanon. He explained that a large number of ministers supported referring the file to the competent judiciary, given the seriousness of the seized materials and the threat they pose to public security.
In a position related to the file of weapons exclusivity, Nassar stressed that “transferring or storing any weapon outside the framework of the state is no longer linked to any concept of resistance,” stressing that the constitution and the law do not give any party a justification to do so, and any pretext for transporting explosives constitutes a violation of public security and the safety of citizens.
The Minister of Justice had requested that the case be referred to the Judicial Council – an exceptional judicial body that looks into crimes affecting state security – stressing that this step, if approved, would not cancel the existing judicial investigations, which alone would remain sufficient to reveal the actual purpose of the shipment and determine the responsibilities and destination for which it was intended.
For its part, the Council of Ministers discussed the file in its session held on Thursday, without resolving the referral issue. Information Minister Paul Morcos announced after the session that the government considered the case “extremely dangerous,” and decided to continue examining the Ministry of Justice’s request in light of the progress of the investigations, with great care to expedite them “without any restriction or ceiling, except the ceiling of the law.”
The details of the case go back to October 5, when the Lebanese security services seized a car loaded with hundreds of kilograms of highly explosive materials of the types “TNT” and “C4” at the Dahr al-Baydar checkpoint linking the Bekaa and Beirut, and it was heading towards the southern suburb. The Ministry of Justice’s request included the referral of other explosives seized in the Al-Qasr area in Baalbek-Hermel Governorate on the ninth of the same month, along with any facts related to them.
On October 15, Hezbollah representative Hassan Fadlallah announced that the shipment belonged to the party, explaining that he informed the security services of its ownership after it was seized. Fadlallah demanded the release of the detainees and the return of the confiscated materials, stressing that they were intended to defend Lebanese territory against Israel, and at the same time rejecting the accusations linking them to the possibility of their use in assassinations or internal attacks, and registering them as part of a “political campaign.”
Between the Ministry of Justice’s adherence to the seriousness of the file, the party’s acknowledgment of ownership of the shipment, and the government’s postponement of the decision to refer it to the Judicial Council, the final word remains for the ongoing judicial investigations to reveal the nature of the mission for which the explosives were prepared and the responsibilities resulting from their transportation and storage.
