Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry on Friday summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires, Tofiq Samadi, over statements from the Iranian embassy in Beirut and Iran’s U.N. representative regarding the status of four Iranians targeted in a recent strike on a hotel in Beirut.

Secretary-General of the Foreign Ministry, Ambassador Abdel Sattar Issa, confronted Samadi, challenging Tehran’s claims that the individuals held diplomatic status and that their presence in Lebanon had been approved by the Lebanese Foreign Ministry. The ministry categorically denied the assertions, calling them false.

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, said in an urgent letter to the UN secretary‑general and the presidents of the UN Security Council and General Assembly that the four Iranians killed in the attack on the Ramada Hotel in Beirut on March 8 were diplomats. 

Issa cited multiple instances of what he described as Iran’s repeated disregard for Lebanese government decisions, including a recent statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announcing joint military operations with Hezbollah. He demanded that the Iranian side provide formal written responses to these concerns.

Samadi was also handed an official written memorandum reaffirming Lebanon’s firm rejection of any interference in its domestic affairs. The document emphasized Lebanon’s full commitment to international law in its entirety, without selectivity or double standards, and stressed that future relations with Tehran must be based on equality and mutual respect, grounded in the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations.