S8 Ep669: 6. Lebanon Declares Iranian Ambassador Designate Persona Non Grata GUEST: Bill Roggio, David Daoud SUMMARY: Lebanon has declared the Iranian ambassador designate persona non grata for interfering in domestic affairs and coordinating with Hezbollah. This r
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
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🗓️ 31 March 2026
⏱️ 4 minutes
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Summary
6. Lebanon Declares Iranian Ambassador Designate Persona Non Grata GUEST: Bill Roggio, David Daoud SUMMARY: Lebanon has declared the Iranian ambassador designate persona non grata for interfering in domestic affairs and coordinating with Hezbollah. This rare assertion of sovereignty highlights Tehran’s long-standing disregard for Lebanese government authority during the war., The Lebanese foreign ministry expelled ambassador designate Shibani for injecting himself into domestic issues and holding unauthorized meetings with Hezbollah to coordinate military activities. Despite the order, Iran has signaled its intent to disregard the decision, further demonstrating its historical treatment of Lebanon as a tool for its own regional interests,. David Daoud views this diplomatic rift as a "living breathing testament" to Iranian arrogance and its disregard for Lebanese sovereignty in service of the "Resistance" axis,. (6)
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John Best with Bill Rajo and David Do to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, |
| 0:20.8 | watching the Lebanon conflict, especially given that the assumption is the IRGC of Iran, |
| 0:28.6 | has been Lords of Lebanon for many decades now, directing the Hezbollah. |
| 0:33.8 | But what we have now is Lebanon declares Iranian ambassador designate persona nongrada before a missile explodes over Lebanese airspace. |
| 0:43.0 | A breakdown in relations between the Lebanese government and Iran. |
| 0:47.1 | What does this mean, David? |
| 0:48.4 | We have a couple of minutes. |
| 0:50.3 | So it absolutely does not mean that it was a breakdown in relations between Lebanon, Iran. |
| 0:55.1 | The Lebanese foreign ministry, in fact, issued a statement making that explicit that this was particular to the person of Shibani, the ambassador, designates, because of activities that were not specified in the persona non-grata order, the expulsion order, nor is it readily available in open source. |
| 1:18.2 | But it seems like from what they are saying, he injected himself into domestic Lebanese issues. |
| 1:23.0 | He probably had some comments to say about the Lebanese government's decision to prescribe Hezvala on March 2nd, prescribed Hezbollah's military activities, rather, probably had some |
| 1:32.7 | comments to say about the Lebanese government's decision days after that to order the arrest |
| 1:38.7 | and deportation of IRGC personnel that were operating in Lebanon, even though we've not seen |
| 1:43.2 | this actually put in practice. And it said that he had meetings with unauthorized parties. He probably had |
| 1:49.7 | behind-the-scenes meetings with Hezbollah to coordinate activities between Iran and Hezbollah, |
| 1:55.2 | whether on the political side or on the military side. We know the IRGC has said repeatedly, |
| 1:58.8 | they've coordinated certain military activities and attacks against Israel with Hezbollah in Lebanon. So all around, he's not acting as an |
| 2:07.0 | ambassador should. He's acting in a way that interferes to Lebanese politics. And again, |
| 2:11.6 | he wasn't fully ambassador. He had fully assumed his role. So they asked him to leave. Now, |
| 2:15.8 | there was a report last week, as I know in my |
| 2:18.2 | longer journal entry on this, that said that Iran was going to disregard this decision by the |
| 2:22.6 | Lebanese government. And as far as latest reports today show, they are indeed disregarding this. |
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