US expels Lebanon's Detroit consul general over post praising Hezbollah's 1983 Marine barracks bombing

The State Department has declared Ibrahim Charara, Lebanon's consul general in Detroit, persona non grata and ordered him out of the country, according to the Lebanese Embassy in Washington and Lebanese Foreign Ministry sources.

The move follows a Washington Free Beacon report on a 2021 social media post attributed to Charara that called the 1983 suicide bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut — which killed 241 American service members — an act of "heroic resistance" that ended the "American military occupation" of Lebanon "in a single blow." Another post attributed to him linked the barracks attack to a 2021 drone strike on U.S. forces at Syria's al-Tanf base.

Charara has been given 48 hours to leave and is expected back in Lebanon on Sunday. A source close to him told Lebanese broadcaster LBCI the posts came from an old account that was hacked years ago. He had also drawn scrutiny for appearing at Michigan events, including one tied to Democratic Senate-elect Abdul El-Sayed; the same source said the two were simply seated together at a community dinner.