Hezbollah Puts the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in Its Sights

The safety of U.S. governmental assets and personnel in Lebanon cannot be taken for granted. Underscoring that concern, the State Department ordered the departure of all non-emergency government personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, along with their family members, on February 23.

Framed by anonymous State Department officials as a “temporary” move, the department’s official Travel Advisory noted tersely that the withdrawal was “due to the security situation in Beirut,” without elaborating.

Most outlets reporting on the development framed it as a precautionary measure tied to rising U.S.-Iranian tensions. However, MTV Lebanon news — a decidedly anti-Hezbollah outlet — alleged Washington ordered the drawdown as a precautionary measure against potential action by the Iran-backed terrorist organization against the embassy or its personnel.

Threatening Moves From Dahiyeh

MTV Lebanon’s White House correspondent claimed Washington was eyeing the embassy’s security with particular concern after an item transmitted by one of Iran’s state broadcasters  appeared to threaten the Lebanese air force’s Hamat Airbase  in northern Lebanon, where U.S. personnel are often present to help train and equip Lebanese counterparts. On February 14, Iran’s Arabic-language IRIB channel Al Alam ran a short video under the title “Under Surveillance…Base No. 9 – Hamat Base Lebanon,” as part of a series of videos depicting U.S. bases under surveillance.

The video falsely claimed the United States was using Hamat Airbase as one of the focal points of its regional troop buildup, while pro-Hezbollah mouthpieces followed up by promoting similar conspiracy theories — suggesting an effort to prime the suspicions of its support base regarding the presence of U.S. personnel in Lebanon. This, according to MTV Lebanon, was accompanied by “successive security incidents” and unspecified “concerning moves from Dahiyeh [Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs] towards the environs of the US Embassy in Beirut.” 

Hezbollah Will Not Remain Neutral During a U.S.-Iran Confrontation

 The memory of the attacks by an earlier incarnation of Hezbollah on U.S. personnel and assets in Lebanon in the 1980s — including the April 1983 embassy bombing, the follow-up bombing of the embassy annex in the mission’s current location in September 1983, and a spate of kidnappings of U.S. diplomats — lends credence to the MTV report.

Adding to its ominous nature, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Naim Qassem, in his January 26 speech expressing solidarity with the Islamic Republic of Iran, stressed his group was religiously and ideologically duty-bound not to remain neutral in the event of an American attack on the Tehran regime or its assets. Qassem did not specify precisely how Hezbollah intended to act, yet emphasized that it was confronting a “direct threat” against which it reserved “every right” to “take all necessary measures and preparations” and “do whatever we deem appropriate to meet the challenge.”

The embassy and its personnel would offer Hezbollah a readily available and relatively soft target, a reality long recognized by the State Department which “considers the threat to U.S. government personnel in Beirut serious enough to require them to live and work under strict security.”

Now Is the Time for Lebanon To Demonstrate Its Credibility as a U.S. Partner

Since the November 2024 ceasefire halting hostilities with Israel, Lebanon has failed to seize the unprecedented opportunity to restrain and ultimately disarm Hezbollah.

Beirut’s inaction has allowed the group to regenerate to the point where its host country is once again, credibly, a potential second front in a war that is not its own. Despite these failures, the United States continues to consider Lebanon’s security apparatuses, including the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), worthwhile interlocutors.

Now is their time to prove their worth as American partners by embracing their constitutional mandate as Lebanon’s sole defenders. Lebanon has a solemn obligation, as the host state, to protect the U.S. embassy and its personnel, as well as tackling Hezbollah’s regeneration and reining in the group’s adventurism.

David Daoud is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he focuses on Israel, Hezbollah, and Lebanon affairs. For more analysis from David and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow David on X @DavidADaoud. Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.