Gulf Air to restart flights to Lebanon

Bahrain's national carrier, Gulf Air, said on Tuesday it will resume flights to Lebanon suspended in March after Lebanon's Hezbollah slammed the kingdom's crackdown on mainly Shia protesters.The carrier said flights will resume on Sunday as the peak season of travel from the desert Gulf region to Lebanon starts.

We are delighted to be able to resume our flights to Beirut. This is great news for our customers. Beirut has always been a popular destination on our network,said Gulf Air chief executive officer Samer Majali in a statement.Bahrain's two carriers, Gulf Air and Bahrain Air, suspended flights to Iran, Iraq and Lebanon as Shia communities condemned the Sunni-ruled kingdom's crackdown on protesters demanding democratic reforms.Bahrain also accused Shia militant party Hezbollah of having links to the month-long protests that rocked the kingdom.In addition to cancelling flights from Bahrain to Lebanon, the Gulf kingdom advised its citizens not to travel to the fellow Arab state, a popular destination for wealthy Gulf Arabs.