The U.S. State Department condemned a complaint filed by a Hezbollah-aligned Lebanese lawyer against Nada Hamadeh Moawad, Lebanon’s envoy to Washington, over her reported contact with her Israeli counterpart Yechiel Leiter following an attack that critically wounded his son.
“We have no patience for obstruction,” a State Department spokesperson said.
The complaint, filed by lawyer Hassan Adel Bazzi, concerns Moawad’s reported outreach to Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, to express sympathy after his son, Neriyah Leiter, an Israel Defense Forces reservist, was seriously wounded in a terrorist car-ramming attack at a checkpoint in the West Bank in September.
Moawad and Leiter have been involved in U.S.-mediated negotiations between Israel and Lebanon aimed at restoring Lebanese government control in the country’s south and addressing Hezbollah’s armed presence there.
Lebanon’s laws prohibiting contact with Israelis have complicated the diplomatic efforts. The Trump administration has urged Beirut to repeal measures that criminalize such contact.
Lebanon’s public prosecutor referred Bazzi’s complaint to Judge Claude Ghanem, the government commissioner at the country’s military court. Lebanese media reported that the referral was a procedural step and did not constitute a formal charge against Moawad or a referral of her case for investigation.
“It is embarrassing that a military court is handling a complaint against Lebanon’s ambassador in Washington simply because she was implementing her legitimate government’s policy and participating in U.S.-led negotiations,” a State Department spokesperson said.
The Lebanese military judiciary “should use its limited resources to prosecute Hezbollah operatives plotting against the Lebanese government and people instead of those working on their behalf,” the spokesperson said.
“Laws and practices that enable this kind of politicized targeting of civilians and diplomats, while systematically shielding Hezbollah operatives, must be repealed,” the spokesperson added.
