Lebanese Overseas Ministry summons envoy to Iran, citing breaches of diplomatic protocol by Tehran.
Printed On 24 Mar 2026
Lebanon has withdrawn accreditation from the Iranian ambassador and declared him persona non grata, demanding his departure from Lebanon by Sunday, the Ministry of Overseas Affairs mentioned on Tuesday.
The ministry additionally summoned the Lebanese ambassador to Iran for consultations, citing what it described as Tehran’s violation of diplomatic norms and established practices between the 2 nations.
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The choice comes because the Israeli military continues to assault Lebanon with air strikes and pushes ahead with a floor offensive in southern Lebanon since a cross-border assault by Hezbollah on March 2, in response to the US-Israel killing of Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Lebanese authorities say not less than 1,039 folks have since been killed and a couple of,876 injured in Israeli assaults. Greater than 1.5 million Lebanese folks have been displaced as Israel has ordered folks to evacuate from the nation’s southern area.
Citing the Lebanese Well being Ministry, Al Jazeera correspondent Zeina Khodr mentioned on Tuesday that not less than three folks had been killed in focused assassinations in a single day in Beirut.
“The Israeli navy mentioned it focused members of the Quds Drive, the international unit of Iran’s IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]. This isn’t the primary time the Israeli military has claimed to focus on the IRGC in Lebanon,” she mentioned.
“Iran did acknowledge that 4 Iranians had been killed in a focused strike at a lodge within the early days of the battle. However they mentioned they had been civilians.”
The most recent Israeli battle comes as lots of the multiple million folks displaced in the course of the 2023-24 battle will not be in a position to return to their houses in southern Lebanon. Israeli forces proceed to occupy Lebanese territory, and proceed assaults which have killed a whole lot.
Hezbollah began cross-border assaults on Israel in October 2023 in solidarity with the folks of Gaza, which was underneath huge Israeli bombardment. Israel invaded southern Lebanon after virtually a yr of cross-border hearth that resulted within the displacement of 1000’s of individuals on either side of the border. The preventing resulted in a ceasefire in November 2024.
Israeli assaults on Lebanon have additional strained relations between the Lebanese authorities and Hezbollah, which has resisted the Lebanese authorities’s makes an attempt to disarm the group. The November 2024 deal required Hezbollah to disarm and the Israeli navy to vacate its positions from inside Lebanon.
Hezbollah, which was established in 1982 following the Israeli invasion, has refused to put down its weapons, demanding that Israel depart Lebanese territory first. The Iran-backed Hezbollah had honoured the 2024 ceasefire deal regardless of repeated violations by Israel.
The Lebanese authorities banned Hezbollah’s navy actions on March 2.
Lebanon, which was weakened within the 2024 battle, appears to have regrouped and mounted a fightback towards Israel. It has fired dozens of rockets towards Israel as one other entrance has opened within the US-Israel battle on Iran. Hezbollah is a part of the so-called “axis of resistance” backed by Tehran. The Houthi group in Yemen and armed teams in Iraq are different members of the axis.
