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BEIRUT: Lebanon's airspace may close for three consecutive days as of Friday midnight due to Russian "military drills" set to take place in the Mediterranean Sea, a source from Beirut's international airport told The Daily Star.
The source said that airport authorities received an official communication from the Russian navy requesting the country shut down its airspace in the interest of civil aviation safety as the drills would directly affect planes arriving to and departing from the airport.
Lebanon has not yet accepted the Russian request to shut down its airspace, Transportation Minister Ghazi Zeaiter said.
"Lebanon's is until now refusing the request, but there are calls being made with Russian officials, international institutions and the United Nations to resolve the issue," Zeaiter told The Daily Star.
He said an announcement will be made shortly.
Zeaiter had earlier said Cyprus was unable to fulfill a request by Lebanon to secure alternative routes.
Planes that take off from Beirut's airport are forced to travel West over the Mediterranean.
Israeli airspace to Lebanon's south is off limits because the two countries are still technically at war, and Syrian airspace to the north and east is also a no-go for passenger jets because of the raging conflict.
Chairman of Middle East Airlines Mohammad Hout said the company will abide by any decision taken by the Lebanese state regarding the change of routes.
“If the government decides to change the routes then we will comply, and if it doesn’t, then we will stick to our current routes,” he said.
The news comes a day after Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil returned from a three-day official visit to Moscow.
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt harshly criticized the Russian "order."
"The Russians ordered Lebanon that for three days our airspace is to be closed. It looks like they consider Lebanon as a district of Moscow, infringing and insulting our sovereignty," Jumblatt wrote on Twitter.
Moscow in recent days has intensified its military operations against ISIS militants in Syria following the announcement by Russia's security service that a bomb took down the passenger jet that crashed last month in Egypt, killing all 224 people on board.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for downing the jet. On Wednesday ISIS's official magazine published a photograph of what it said was the explosive device planted on the jet that took it down.
Russia currently has a naval facility in the Syrian coastal city of Tartus, and has supported its ally Syrian President Bashar Assad in his country's nearly five-year war.