US declares Lebanon's Detroit consul persona non grata over Hezbollah posts

The State Department has declared Ibrahim Charara, Lebanon's consul general in Detroit, persona non grata over social media posts in which he praised the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American service members.

The U.S. State Department on Saturday declared Ibrahim Charara, Lebanon's consul general in Detroit, persona non grata over social media posts in which he praised the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanese and Arab media outlets including Naharnet and Asharq reported.

The posts were first unearthed by the Washington Free Beacon. In a post marking an anniversary of the bombing, Charara wrote that the "heroic resistance" had ended the "American military occupation" of Lebanon with "a single strike." In another, he wrote: "From the Marines barracks in Beirut to the Al-Tanf base... we will reject the occupier and defeat him," a reference to a 2021 drone attack on U.S. troops at Al-Tanf in Syria.

The Harry S Truman Building, headquarters of the U.S. State Department, in Washington

On Oct. 23, 1983, a suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives into the Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. service members. Minutes later, a second attack hit the headquarters of French paratroopers, killing 58 French soldiers; six Lebanese civilians also died. The State Department attributed the bombing to the Iran-backed Hezbollah in a statement marking its 40th anniversary in 2023.

The Detroit post carries particular weight because the area is home to one of the largest Lebanese American communities in the United States. Under Article 23 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, a host country may notify the sending state at any time that a consular officer is persona non grata, without having to explain its decision.