Lebanon orders Iran’s ambassador out
Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry declared Iran’s ambassador to Beirut persona non grata on Tuesday, ordering him to leave the country by the end of the week. The decision was the clearest sign yet of deteriorating relations between the two countries and raises tensions within Lebanon over the role of Tehran and its Lebanon-based ally, the militant Hezbollah group.
The decision is the latest step taken by Lebanon’s Government against Iran after the most recent Israel-Hezbollah war broke out on March 2, during which Israel’s military killed several members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in strikes around the long-suffering country.
Hezbollah triggered the latest war by firing rockets into Israel two days after Israel and the United States began their attacks on Iran, in which they killed top Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Hezbollah said one of the reasons it attacked Israel was to avenge the killing of Khamenei, who was one of the most important Shiite Muslim religious figures worldwide. Over the weekend, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is commanding Hezbollah’s operations in Lebanon, adding that the firing of missiles toward Israel threw the small nation into a broad confrontation that the Lebanese Government “was not willing to get involved in.”
“It is not the duty of the Lebanese to avenge Khamenei’s killing,” Salam said. Salam also said the IRG was behind the firing of drones from Lebanon toward the Mediterranean island of Cyprus earlier this month. Hours after Hezbollah fired rockets on March 2, triggering the war that has so far killed 1,072 people in Lebanon.
