BEIRUT: Brig. Gen. Eliya al-Obeid was appointed acting head of airport security at Rafik Hariri International Airport, Beirut, Monday, to replace just retired Brig. Gen. Yasser Mahmoud.

A source at Rafik Hariri International Airport told The Daily Star that Yasser retired Monday after having ended his years of service.

Obeid will serve until consensus has been reached over the individual to take over the post of head of airport security.

Brig. Gen. Ghassan Salem, a Greek Orthodox, has been nominated to head security at Beirut’s international airport to replace Mahmoud, a member of the Druze sect.

If that post settles for a Greek Orthodox, the Christians would have regained a key security post.

In 2010, Mahmoud was appointed acting airport security chief following the resignation of Brig. Gen Wafik Shokeir, a Shiite, who had headed the post from 1998.

Christians had occupied the post prior to Shokeir’s appointment by former President Emile Lahoud.

Shokeir was one of the main causes of a dispute in 2008 between the government, headed by then Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, and the then Hezbollah-led opposition, which spiraled into brief clashes between Hezbollah and supporters of the Future Movement, a key player in the country’s March 14 alliance.

The armed clashes erupted when Siniora’s Cabinet decided to remove Shokeir from his post over his alleged links to Hezbollah, and after the discovery of a private telecoms network set up by Hezbollah on Lebanese territory.

Hezbollah rejected the Cabinet decision and accused the government of launching a war against it.

Ministerial sources told The Daily Star in July that the deal over Salem had been sealed in order to appease Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, an ally of Hezbollah, who failed to secure a Christian candidate for the post of head of General Security, which had traditionally been among the sect’s share of security posts prior to 1998.

But Lebanon’s Shiites retained that post when Cabinet last month appointed Brig. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim as head of Lebanon’s General Security.

The decision came after consensus had been reached on Ibrahim, who was deputy Lebanese Army intelligence chief before he took on his new post.