Lebanon is facing a crisis as Iran’s ambassador, Mohammad Reza Sheibani, refuses to be expelled from the country.
The ambassador, who was appointed relatively recently and assumed his role in January, was expelled in mid-March for meddling in Lebanon’s internal affairs.
However, Iran won’t take him back because Tehran appears to view Lebanon as a kind of colony. Iran says the ambassador will stay and continue his work, according to comments from Tehran this week.
Ostensibly, Sheibani will become an “illegal resident” in Lebanon. According to the Lebanese media outlet Nida al-Watan, Lebanon’s foreign ministry is considering legal proceedings against the Iranian ambassador.
However, Sheibani has support, particularly from Hezbollah and the large Shi’ite Amal party, which is led by Nabih Berri, one of the longest-serving Lebanese politicians, who is the speaker of parliament.
According to the al-Watan report, “Never before has an ‘undesirable’ ambassador been stripped of his dignity and personal integrity, let alone diplomatic decorum, to such a degree of blatant disregard as Mohammad Reza Sheibani and the Iranian Foreign Ministry have displayed by their insistence on forcibly and brazenly imposing his presence.
“With this rejection, Sheibani has forfeited his diplomatic status and become a refugee within the confines of the embassy.”
The report claims that Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and other government officials are discussing what to do next. Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi is also in touch with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
Lebanon expects that Raggi will soon respond to Iran’s decision not to take back the ambassador.
“The source confirmed that diplomatic avenues with Tehran remain closed, noting that the Foreign Ministry is currently studying a range of legal procedures and options for dealing with the situation of the ‘expelled ambassador’ who refuses to comply with international norms,” notes al-Watan.
This will create an internal crisis in Lebanon. The country already faces a crisis as Israel continues to deepen operations in its south. Around one million people have had to flee the Israeli incursion.
These people, many of them Shi’ites, will now end up in areas of Lebanon where Christians, Druze, and Sunnis live. Although some may move to existing Shi’ite areas, there is a chance for demographic change.
Groups like Amal, which want the ambassador to stay, are involved in facilitating the movement and aid to the displaced. It is possible that the number of displaced may reach 1.5 million. If the war continues, the pressure on Beirut will grow.
The al-Watan report argues that pressure now falls on Berri to decide if he is more loyal to Iran or to Lebanon. However, considering he has been around politics for some 50 years, he has navigated this issue before.
According to the report, in response to Iranian recklessness, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stated that “violating the decisions of the Lebanese government is not heroism, but rather the height of contempt for international laws and the principles of interaction between states.
“In any case, we have spent the last four decades of our national life in this reality, and we will certainly do everything in our power to get out of it as quickly as possible.”
Geagea is a well-known figure in Lebanon, once upon a time a key leader of Christian fighters, who also spent time in prison after the Lebanese civil war. He has been warning of escalation in the wake of the ambassador being expelled.
Lebanon’s president is expected to give a speech, possibly on March 31, about what comes next.
“In this context, Aoun emphasized that security forces are taking decisive steps to prevent any security breaches among the Lebanese, carrying out arrests and confiscating weapons,” says al-Watan.
Meanwhile, there is a focus on Lebanon because several UNIFIL members have been killed and wounded.
France and Italy have condemned the attacks on UNIFIL. Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto and French minister of the Armed Forces and Veterans, Catherine Vautrin, held a telephone conversation focused on the ongoing crisis in the country, Anadolu media reported.
Al-Watan says that Israel is expanding its operations in areas of southern Lebanon. The Lebanese army command announced that an Israeli attack targeted a checkpoint in Amiriya, on the Qalila-Tyre road.