The Trump administration has ordered Lebanese diplomat Ibrahim Charara to leave the United States over social media posts in which he praised Hezbollah's 1983 suicide bombing of U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut as "heroic resistance" against "American military occupation." The posts were first reported by the Washington Free Beacon.
Charara, who serves as Lebanon's general consul to Detroit, is expected to leave the United States by Sunday after the State Department declared him persona non grata, a person familiar with the matter told the Free Beacon.
The stunning decision comes after the Free Beacon unearthed Charara's posts from 2021 hailing the 1983 bombing, in which Hezbollah terrorists killed 241 U.S. Marines.
Since taking the post last year, Charara has cozied up to numerous local officials and community leaders in Dearborn, Mich., a majority-Muslim town outside Detroit with a significant Lebanese population. He appeared at the annual banquet of the Arab American Political Action Committee last week and sat next to then-Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D.), a keynote speaker at the event.
Charara attended an Arab American Civil Rights League gala last month, where he was photographed with Cenk Uygur, the left-wing YouTube host and El-Sayed ally who produced an antisemitic ad days before the election that blamed Israel for high grocery prices in America and boosted El-Sayed.
In June, El-Sayed and Charara attended the grand opening of a new mosque for the Islamic Institute of America, whose lead imam, Hassan al-Qazwini, has praised Hezbollah leaders and Iran.
Charara has attended a number of other events with Dearborn mayor Abdullah Hammoud (D.) and Osama Siblani, a Dearborn community leader who unapologetically refers to Hezbollah as "freedom fighters."
Hezbollah is believed to be responsible for the Oct. 23, 1983, suicide bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks outpost in Beirut. The attack killed 241 American service members, 58 French service members, and 5 civilians.
"On this day, the heroic resistance to the American military occupation of Beirut ended with a single strike that documents the defeat of neocolonialism on our land," Charara wrote on Oct. 23, 2021.
Charara has espoused other anti-American views and hostility toward Israel. The banner image on his X account, which has not been used since November 2021, shows a burning Israeli flag.
Charara did not respond to requests for comment before the Free Beacon published the initial story on his posts. The Lebanese embassy in Washington, D.C., told the Free Beacon after the story ran that it was looking into Charara's posts and indicated that any support for the 1983 suicide bombing was unacceptable.
According to the Jerusalem Post, an ally of Charara told Lebanese news outlets that Charara's posts were from an old account that was hacked.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
