Middle East & North Africa
US expels Lebanese consul general in Detroit over posts praising the 1983 attack on US Marines – what his circle says
The State Department declared Lebanon’s consul general in Detroit, Ibrahim Sarara, persona non grata over social media posts praising the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut. His circle says his account was hacked.
The consul general of Lebanon in Detroit, Ibrahim Sarara, must leave the United States. The State Department declared him persona non grata over social media posts that praised the 1983 bombing of the American Marines in Beirut. Sources in Lebanon’s foreign ministry confirmed that Lebanon’s embassy in Washington received an official notice and that the diplomat has 48 hours to depart.
A person from Sarara’s circle told L’Orient Today that the notice arrived on the afternoon of Friday, November 6 and that the deadline expired at 8 am on Sunday, November 8. The decision, according to the same source, came without warning and without any earlier American complaint about his work at the consulate. The source recalls that Sarara passed the security checks for his appointment in April 2025.
The posts and the diplomat’s response
The posts were brought to light on November 2 by the Washington Free Beacon. On October 23, 2021, the anniversary of the attack, Sarara’s account on X wrote that on that day the “heroic resistance” ended the “American military occupation of Beirut” “with a single blow.” In another post the attack on the barracks was linked to the Al-Tanf base in Syria, with a promise that “we will repel the occupier and defeat him.” The attack of October 23, 1983, attributed to Hezbollah, killed 241 American servicemen and, in a second attack the same day, 58 French paratroopers.
The diplomat’s circle claims the account was hacked seven years ago and that he did not write the posts. It also says he no longer has access to the account, nor to the email and phone linked to it. The account has no posts after 2021 and its profile still lists earlier positions of his at Lebanon’s embassy in Egypt. Lebanon’s embassy in Washington had said after the first report that it is examining the case and that any support for the 1983 attack is unacceptable.
The case also took on a political dimension. Sarara had attended the annual dinner of the Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC) next to Abdul El-Sayed, who was elected last week as a senator from Michigan. The diplomat’s circle says he was there in his capacity as consul and that the case is being used to hurt the new senator. These claims have not been independently verified.
The decision comes at a time of tension around Hezbollah, with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warning of a new “reckless adventure” and the Israeli army announcing that it found more than 340 Hezbollah weapons in southern Lebanon.
