An Iranian official has reportedly for the first time acknowledged the country’s role in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy and the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, which killed more than 200 American diplomats and military personnel.
Issa Tabatabai, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative in Lebanon, apparently made the admission during an interview with the Iranian state news agency IRNA. He gave alleged details about his mission to Lebanon in 1982 to carry out martyrdom operations as ordered by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The interview was spotted by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which translated it from Farsi. The interview was published under the headline “I Received From Imam Khomeini The Fatwa [Ordering] Martyrdom Operations Against The Americans,” according to the translation by MEMRI.
Iran and the U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hezbollah have for decades been blamed for bombing the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983, killing 63 people, including 17 Americans, and for the suicide truck bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut six months later that killed 241 American servicemen and 58 French troops. Iran has always vehemently denied having anything to do with the bombings.
In the interview, Tabatabai first explained why he was in Lebanon:
“… With the victory of the Islamic Revolution [in Iran], Hezbollah was established [in the summer of 1982]. For two years, [Hezbollah’s] military base was located in my home. ‘The group’ [comprising supporters of the Islamic Revolution] signed a contract declaring their willingness to become martyrs. Perhaps more than 70 [of them] signed this contract in my home.
“This ‘group’ was given facilities, and then the [1982] war with Israel broke out in South [Lebanon] … When Israel occupied South Lebanon, we had to launch a movement, and the military movement started in my home. [At the time] we were not thinking of establishing Hezbollah – we were just adhering to the [Iranian] ‘resistance.'”
Then Tabatabai allegedly claimed his orders to commit martyrdom operations came directly from Ayatollah Khomeini, the father of the Islamic Republic.
“We received many facilities from the Palestinians. The military courses we had with the Palestinians prompted us to launch the struggle, and from the Imam [Khomeini], I received approval for the struggle against Israel and even the fatwa [ordering] to carry out martyrdom operations [ishtihad in the original], and he confirmed this three times.
“I quickly went to Lebanon and provided what was needed in order to [carry out] martyrdom operations in the place where the Americans and Israelis were, Tabatabai reportedly said.
He then reportedly revealed that Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps was present in Lebanon before he arrived.
“The efforts to establish [Hezbollah] started in [Lebanon’s] Baalbek area, where members of [Iran’s] Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps [IRGC] arrived. I had no part in establishing the [political] party [Hezbollah], but God made it possible for me to continue the military activity with the group that had cooperated with us prior to the [Islamic] Revolution’s victory. …”
According to MEMRI, the interview segments quoted above were removed from IRNA’s website shortly after publication.
Tabatabai is highly respected among Iran’s senior officials. His meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in September was featured on the website of Iran’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.
After the apparent admission came to light, Iran expert for the American Enterprise Institute Michael Rubin told Fox News Digital:
“Americans have astonished both Iranians and the victims of Iranian terrorism with the diplomatic contortions undertaken to avoid holding Iran to account. Now that the supreme leader’s representative has confessed, the questions are: (1) Will Americans who carried water for Iranian terrorism apologize? (2) Will Iran pay compensation to the victims of their terror? If [President] Biden prices five Americans at $6 billion, the U.S. should demand no less than $289.2 billion from Iran today.”
Columnist Caroline Glick reacted to the revelation by posting on X, “For the first time, an Iranian official admits Iran was behind the bombings of the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983. As I explained in my column last Friday, Iran defines the U.S. as its main enemy, and America ignores this at its peril.”