Thousands of people gathered in Ghobeiri for the funeral ceremony of Haytham Ali Tabataba'i, who was killed in an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut, on Nov. 24, 2025. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — The nationality of the Hezbollah official assassinated by Israel in an airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday caused debate online when information surfaced revealing that he had Lebanese citizenship despite his father being Iranian. Lebanon continues to function under a 100-year-old law that prevents Lebanese women from passing down their nationality to their children.
Haytham Ali Tabataba'i was one of six people killed in an Israeli attack on the densely populated neighborhood, the latest escalation in steadily increasing Israeli aggression against Lebanon in violation of the November 2024 cease-fire agreement.
Israel named Tabataba'i as Hezbollah's "chief of staff" and said he was rebuilding the party's capabilities. He was relatively unknown to the general public before his death, despite being a founding member of the party and a commander in its elite Radwan unit.
Tabataba'i is not a common Lebanese last name, and it quickly emerged that he was born in Lebanon to an Iranian father and a Lebanese mother. Despite Lebanese law preventing children with foreign fathers from acquiring Lebanese citizenship, Tabataba'i was somehow naturalized and is registered in Beirut's Bashoura neighborhood, according to a source close to Hezbollah.
A mokhtar from this neighborhood confirmed to L'Orient Today that Tabataba'i was in fact registered in local records. It remains unclear how Tabataba'i's family managed ot circumvent the law and grant him citizenship.
“How am I supposed to tell my two daughters that Tabataba'i got Lebanese nationality and they did not?” one woman, who is married to a foreigner, protested in a post shared online.
“Does he hold Lebanese nationality in order to be part of Hezbollah?" another post reads. "Under which [presidential] mandate was he naturalized? If he does not have it, that means Hezbollah’s leadership remains under the control of Iranian generals.”
The nationality law, which is 100 years old, doesn't mention mothers married to foreigners; it only refers to Lebanese fathers, who have the automatic right to confer citizenship to their children. All the campaigns to change this have led to no tangible results.
Mass naturalizations have nonetheless taken place on several occasions since the 1990s. Such decrees are under the authority of the president and must be countersigned by the prime minister and interior minister.
Some have proven controversial: in 1994, Decree No. 5247 granted Lebanese nationality to tens of thousands of people, including stateless groups and foreign residents; it was criticized for the opacity of the selection process, with political and electoral interests alleged for many beneficiaries.
During Michel Aoun’s presidency (2016-2022) and while Saad Hariri was prime minister, on May 11, 2018, about 400 foreigners — mainly Palestinians and Syrians — were naturalized by order of the president. The move sparked controversy, especially concerning names close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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