Lebanon’s top diplomat in Detroit backs El-Sayed after praising Hezbollah Marine bombing as ‘heroic’

The consul general position in Detroit is a key post for the Lebanese government given the large Lebanese presence in the area, centered around Dearborn and Dearborn Heights.

By Chuck Ross, The Washington Free Beacon

The top Lebanese diplomat in Detroit, who attended an Arab American banquet in support of Abdul El-Sayed and other Democratic candidates last week, praised Hezbollah’s 1983 suicide attack on the U.S. Marine Corps barracks, which killed 241 American service members, in social media posts unearthed by the Washington Free Beacon.

Ibrahim Charara serves as Lebanon’s consul general in Detroit, an important role since there is a large Lebanese population in the Detroit area.

He wrote on Nov. 23, 2021, the anniversary of the barracks bombing, that the “heroic resistance” ended “American military occupation” of Lebanon with a “single strike.”

The Iran-backed Hezbollah is believed to have been behind the attack, in which two suicide bombers killed 241 Marines, 58 French soldiers, and 6 civilians at military facilities in Beirut.

“From the Marines barracks in Beirut to the Al-Tanf base… we will reject the occupier and defeat him,” Charara wrote, a reference to a purported Iran and Hezbollah drone attack on American soldiers at Al-Tanf base in Syria in 2021.

Charara has espoused other anti-American and anti-Israel views. His banner on X is an image of a burning Israeli flag.

His bio quotes Ghassan Kanafani, a leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist group that carried out numerous suicide bombings.

In 2021, he praised the Gilboa prison break, in which six Islamic terrorists, including Hamas bombmaker Zakaria Zubeidi, escaped from an Israeli prison.

Despite his terrorist rhetoric, Charara has ascended to a key diplomatic post in the United States.

The consul general position in Detroit is a key post for the Lebanese government given the large Lebanese presence in the area, centered around Dearborn and Dearborn Heights.

Charara, who previously served as a diplomat in Egypt, has been welcomed with open arms by the Lebanese and Arab diaspora in Dearborn and surrounding cities.

That was highlighted by Charara’s visit last week to the 29th annual banquet of the Arab American Political Action Committee in Dearborn, which featured El-Sayed, Michigan gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, and others.

El-Sayed, who is seen in photos seated near Charara, heaped praise during his speech on AAPAC founder Osama Siblani, who has come under fire for stating that Hamas and Hezbollah are “freedom fighters” and praising former Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah as a “hero.”

El-Sayed has faced scrutiny over his ties to Siblani, as well as his remarks earlier this year after Lebanese national Ayman Ghazali carried out a Hezbollah-inspired attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township.

El-Sayed said of Ghazali that “hurt people hurt people.”

El-Sayed thanked Siblani at the banquet for his “leadership” and said that he “stood on the shoulders of giants.”

Charara attended the AAPAC banquet last year, which El-Sayed also attended. Charara was photographed throughout the event with Siblani, whose brother was head of security for Lebanon’s Hezbollah-aligned Amal party in the 1980s.

Charara has appeared at numerous other events in the Dearborn area with local officials and religious leaders.

He has met multiple times with Dearborn mayor Abdullah Hammoud and Dearborn Heights mayor Mo Baydoun, both of whom are close allies of El-Sayed.

Charara attended the Arab-American Civil Rights League’s annual gala last month, where he rubbed shoulders with Cenk Uygur, the El-Sayed ally who stoked fury last week over an antisemitic ad he commissioned which blamed Israel for rising grocery prices in the United States.

In June, Charara and El-Sayed attended the grand opening of the Islamic Institute of America, an influential Shia mosque in Dearborn Heights.

Charara and El-Sayed are seen in a photo at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the mosque, led by Hassan al-Qazwini.

During a speech at the event, El-Sayed offered “hearty congratulations” to al-Qazwini.

The cleric has called Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah a “hero” and prayed earlier this year to “grant victory to our brothers in Iran.”

Charara’s inroads to the Michigan political orbit could raise eyebrows in Washington, especially in the wake of remarks from Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri.

Berri, the leader of the Amal party, the Hezbollah-aligned group, recently told Sen. James Lankford (R., Okla.) that his party has an “extension” in Michigan and is keeping tabs on the Senate race.

Lankford expressed surprise at Berri’s remarks, he told reporters. “When we walked out, we all looked at each other and said, ‘Did I hear that correctly, that he had just said that he had an extension of his party that was also in Michigan?'”

One Israeli outlet called Berri’s revelation “shocking” and “pretty unsettling” considering the Amal party’s affiliation with Hezbollah.

While it remains unclear what “extension” Berri has in Michigan, he recently hosted Baydoun, the Dearborn Heights mayor, in Lebanon.

And Baydoun and other local leaders hosted a welcoming reception for Berri’s right-hand man, Ashraf Beydoun, in September.

Mayor Baydoun’s chief of staff, Mallak Beydoun, posed for photos with the Lebanese official.

A group supporting El-Sayed’s campaign called Unity & Justice Fund has paid $400,000 to Beydoun’s consulting firm, Chase & Porter, for “canvassing” activities in the Dearborn area, according to campaign finance reports.

The Lebanese consulate and embassy in Washington, D.C., did not respond to requests for comment.

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