Iran’s Regime Says: Lebanon Is Ours
Wall Street Journal
By The Editorial Board
March 30, 2026 5:38 pm ET
The deadline for the Iranian ambassador to leave Lebanon was Sunday. Beirut declared Mohammad Reza Shibani persona non grata, but he’s still there, at his embassy. On Monday Iran’s Foreign Ministry said he won’t be leaving Lebanon, and the message is clear: Neither will Iran.
Talk about a house guest from hell. The Iranian regime is so used to ordering around the Lebanese in their own country, why should it begin respecting Lebanese sovereignty now? Theirs is but to do and die, at Iran’s call.
Iran’s regime came to Beirut in the 1980s to kill hundreds of Americans. Later it took over southern Lebanon and used it to drag the whole country into a needless, long-running conflict with Israel punctuated by two devastating wars, and now a third. Tehran accomplished these feats via Hezbollah, a Shiite militia devoted to Iran’s Supreme Leader.
This war, which Hezbollah began by firing at Israel on March 2, is waged for Iran’s regime. Lebanon has no interest in it. Even Hezbollah clearly wanted quiet as it rebuilds from the previous war it started with Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after Hamas’s massacre. But the shots are called in Tehran, which needs Israel preoccupied with a second war front.
Not for nothing did U.S. envoy Tom Barrack say in November 2025 that “Lebanon is a failed state.” As he explained, Hezbollah ate away at the state, replaced it in the country’s south, and corrupted or otherwise entangled it everywhere else, from the Beirut port and airport to the armed forces. Hezbollah uses the specter of another civil war to deter any real action against it by Lebanon’s government.
Beirut drove Mr. Barrack to distraction by refusing to meaningfully disarm Hezbollah for all of 2025, as it had promised in a U.S.-brokered cease-fire with Israel. This was with the terrorists at their weakest, after Israel’s demolition of Hezbollah’s leadership in late 2024.
In the current war, when Lebanon finally banned Hezbollah’s military activities, the Lebanese army sidestepped the directive. Better to leave the dirty work to Israel, whose troops now expand a security buffer in southern Lebanon. Civilians have been evacuated, and Hezbollah-run villages that were used repeatedly to spark wars may be leveled.
Expelling the Iranian ambassador could have been a protest at Iran’s practice of claiming diplomatic status for its Revolutionary Guard commanders, who now conduct a war from Lebanese territory. One man wouldn’t have made much of a difference when Lebanon still won't disarm Hezbollah, but Tehran won’t even give Beirut cover for inaction. Iran’s regime wants Lebanon as a satrapy and nothing more.
Lebanon’s future depends on the expulsion of Iran’s regime, not merely its ambassador. This war provides the best opportunity in years to do so, and the U.S. and Israel can help. But if Lebanon wants independence, the country will have to seize it.
By The Editorial Board
March 30, 2026 5:38 pm ET
The deadline for the Iranian ambassador to leave Lebanon was Sunday. Beirut declared Mohammad Reza Shibani persona non grata, but he’s still there, at his embassy. On Monday Iran’s Foreign Ministry said he won’t be leaving Lebanon, and the message is clear: Neither will Iran.
Talk about a house guest from hell. The Iranian regime is so used to ordering around the Lebanese in their own country, why should it begin respecting Lebanese sovereignty now? Theirs is but to do and die, at Iran’s call.
Iran’s regime came to Beirut in the 1980s to kill hundreds of Americans. Later it took over southern Lebanon and used it to drag the whole country into a needless, long-running conflict with Israel punctuated by two devastating wars, and now a third. Tehran accomplished these feats via Hezbollah, a Shiite militia devoted to Iran’s Supreme Leader.
This war, which Hezbollah began by firing at Israel on March 2, is waged for Iran’s regime. Lebanon has no interest in it. Even Hezbollah clearly wanted quiet as it rebuilds from the previous war it started with Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after Hamas’s massacre. But the shots are called in Tehran, which needs Israel preoccupied with a second war front.
Not for nothing did U.S. envoy Tom Barrack say in November 2025 that “Lebanon is a failed state.” As he explained, Hezbollah ate away at the state, replaced it in the country’s south, and corrupted or otherwise entangled it everywhere else, from the Beirut port and airport to the armed forces. Hezbollah uses the specter of another civil war to deter any real action against it by Lebanon’s government.
Beirut drove Mr. Barrack to distraction by refusing to meaningfully disarm Hezbollah for all of 2025, as it had promised in a U.S.-brokered cease-fire with Israel. This was with the terrorists at their weakest, after Israel’s demolition of Hezbollah’s leadership in late 2024.
In the current war, when Lebanon finally banned Hezbollah’s military activities, the Lebanese army sidestepped the directive. Better to leave the dirty work to Israel, whose troops now expand a security buffer in southern Lebanon. Civilians have been evacuated, and Hezbollah-run villages that were used repeatedly to spark wars may be leveled.
Expelling the Iranian ambassador could have been a protest at Iran’s practice of claiming diplomatic status for its Revolutionary Guard commanders, who now conduct a war from Lebanese territory. One man wouldn’t have made much of a difference when Lebanon still won't disarm Hezbollah, but Tehran won’t even give Beirut cover for inaction. Iran’s regime wants Lebanon as a satrapy and nothing more.
Lebanon’s future depends on the expulsion of Iran’s regime, not merely its ambassador. This war provides the best opportunity in years to do so, and the U.S. and Israel can help. But if Lebanon wants independence, the country will have to seize it.
