Lebanon's General Security director has granted a six-month residency extension to Mohammad Reza Sheibani, the former Iranian ambassador declared persona non grata by the Foreign Ministry in March.
The residency permit was renewed on Monday by Brigadier General Hassan Choucair, allowing Sheibani to remain in Lebanon as a former diplomat who served there in 2006. The Foreign Ministry had rejected his credentials on March 24 and declared him persona non grata, expecting him to leave by March 29.
According to a Foreign Ministry source, the decision to renew the permit was coordinated by President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. The source said all three bear responsibility for failing to implement the state's March decision to remove Sheibani.
The source attributed the reversal to pressure and reaction from Tehran, Berri, and Hezbollah. The March decision had represented the first concrete step toward consolidating authority under the Lebanese state, the source said, and Hezbollah did not accept it.
The Foreign Ministry believes Sheibani is a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, the source said. Sheibani previously served in Syria from 2011 to 2016 during Iran's military intervention there. After Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was killed in 2024, Iran sought to increase its military involvement in Lebanon and sent Sheibani to the country, according to the source.
The Foreign Ministry opposes the residency renewal. The decision contradicts the government's stated path toward becoming a sovereign state, the source said.
Under the Vienna Convention, once an ambassador is declared persona non grata, he is required to leave the country and any existing residency documentation becomes void, the source argued. Sheibani's failure to leave after March 29 marked the beginning of the issue, not the Monday renewal, the source said.
