The U.S. State Department continuously reviews information about foreign mission members accredited to the United States, including any national security concerns, and takes appropriate action consistent with U.S. law and international obligations, a State Dept. spokesperson said, after the Lebanese consul in Detroit was declared persona non grata.
"Terrorists murdered Americans and our colleagues in the bombings of the U.S. Embassy compounds in Beirut in 1983 and 1984. We will never forget them," the spokesperson said.
•l"The Lebanese Consul in Detroit has been designated persona non grata. A visa is a privilege not a right. Anyone in the United States who celebrates or justifies terrorist attacks has no place in our country," the spokesperson added.
Ibrahim Charara serves as Lebanon's consul general in Detroit, an important role since there is a large Lebanese population in the Detroit area. He wrote on Nov. 23, 2021, the anniversary of the barracks bombing, that the "heroic resistance" ended "American military occupation" of Lebanon with a "single strike."
The Iran-backed Hezbollah is believed to have been behind the attack, in which two suicide bombers killed 241 Marines, 58 French soldiers, and 6 civilians at military facilities in Beirut.
"From the Marines barracks in Beirut to the Al-Tanf base... we will reject the occupier and defeat him," Charara wrote, a reference to a purported Iran and Hezbollah drone attack on American soldiers at Al-Tanf base in Syria in 2021.
