Lebanon summons Iranian envoy after Revolutionary Guards claim joint Hezbollah attack on Israel

Iran accused Israel on Tuesday of killing four of its diplomats in a weekend strike on a seafront Beirut hotel in what it called a "terrorist attack".

Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi has summoned the Iranian charge d'affaires for a meeting after Iran's Revolutionary Guards claimed responsibility for a coordinated missile attack with Hezbollah on Israel.

"Rejecting any interference in Lebanon's internal affairs, I have summoned the Iranian Charge d’Affaires to the Ministry tomorrow," Raggi said on X on Thursday.

He added that he had instructed his ministry's secretary-general to "convey Lebanon's firm objection to a series of incidents and statements that constitute a clear violation of our national sovereignty and a breach of our government's decisions".

The Revolutionary Guards announced late at night that they had carried out a "joint and integrated operation" with ally Hezbollah to fire missiles and drones at Israel from both Iran and Lebanon.

The Lebanese government decided last week to ban any activity by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the country amid the ongoing fighting between Tehran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, an outgrowth of the wider war roiling the Middle East.

The government also took the unprecedented step last week of imposing a ban on Hezbollah military activities and called on the group to hand over its weapons to the state.

More than 100 Iranians, including some diplomats, were evacuated from Beirut on Sunday on a Russian plane, a Lebanese official told AFP.

Iran accused Israel on Tuesday of killing four of its diplomats in a weekend strike on a seafront Beirut hotel in what it called a "terrorist attack".

The Israeli military claimed the attack, saying it "conducted a precise strike targeting key commanders" in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, its foreign operations arm.