An Iranian woman walks past a giant billboard supporting Iran’s national soccer team ahead of the 2026 World Cup in Enghelab Square in Tehran on May 18, 2026. (Credit: AFP)
Iran’s Embassy in Beirut announced Monday new measures governing the entry of Lebanese citizens into Iran, appearing to ease visa restrictions imposed by Tehran two weeks ago.
Starting May 22, 2026, Lebanese citizens holding ordinary passports will be allowed to travel to Iran for tourism or religious pilgrimage once every six months and stay for up to 15 days without a visa, the embassy said in a post on X.
The embassy said the measure applies only to tourist and religious travel. People seeking to travel to Iran for other reasons, stay longer than 15 days or enter the country more than once within a six-month period will still be required to obtain a visa through an Iranian diplomatic mission or at Iranian international airports.
Earlier this month, Tehran imposed visa requirements on Lebanese citizens entering Iran. Iranian authorities said the decision came after the Lebanese government ended an agreement between the two countries facilitating entry at border crossings and reinstated visa requirements.
Three days after Hezbollah entered the regional war alongside Iran on March 2, Lebanon’s Cabinet banned all activities by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Lebanon. Shortly afterward, Beirut imposed visa requirements on Iranian nationals entering Lebanon. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam later said the decision was linked to “information regarding activities carried out by members of the Revolutionary Guard that could endanger Lebanese national security.”
Contacted by L’Orient-Le Jour, a source at Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry said Lebanon had not reversed its decision.
In late March, Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry declared Iranian Ambassador to Beirut Mohammad Reza Shaibani persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country, though the decision was ultimately not enforced. An Iranian diplomatic source later attributed the reversal to “the will of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Hezbollah.”
