"An unknown man called me and said ‘I’m going to fire two rockets at the embassy and destroy it over your heads’, then he hung up," embassy charge d’affaires Tareq al-Hamad told AFP.
"He didn’t give the motive for his threats," said Hamad, who gave the order for the evacuation of the mission as well as the National Bank of Kuwait which is located in the same building.
The threat against the Kuwaiti mission came just weeks after three people were killed in a bombing that targeted a US embassy car in Beirut, where a protracted political crisis has prevented the election of a president.
In recent weeks Britain and the United States have urged their citizens in Lebanon to be vigilant, Saudi Arabia has advised against travel to the country while France has shut two cultural centres.
Kuwait reacted by advising its citizens to defer any travel to Lebanon "for their own safety" and security was boosted around the embassy.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh condemned the threat as "unacceptable", as did Lebanon’s parliament speaker and opposition leader Nabih Berri.
Lebanon is already mired in its worst political crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, with rival factions deadlocked over the choice of president, a post vacant since November.
The ruling coalition, backed by the West and most oil-rich Gulf Arab states, is at at loggerheads with the Shiite Hezbollah-led opposition on the process of electing a president and the make-up of a future government.
Street clashes in recent days between supporters of the majority and the Iranian- and Syrian-backed opposition have further raised tensio
Saudi Arabia has been involved in trying to end the stalemate but Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said on Wednesday that the country was "on the verge of civil war."
Lebanese media and officials speculated the threat on the Kuwaiti embassy may be linked to controversy in the Gulf emirate after Shiite MPs held a rally to mourn Hezbollah commander Imad Mughnieh, who was slain in a Damascus car bombing earlier this month.
The rally prompted outrage by Sunni MPs and organisations because of his alleged involvement in the 1988 deadly hijacking of a Kuwaiti plane.
Hezbollah is due to hold a rally on Friday in memory of Mughnieh, who was on America’s most wanted list over string of anti-Israeli and anti-Western attacks including massive bombings, hijackings and kidnappings.
However, Hezbollah official Nawaf Mussawi denounced the threat against Kuwait, saying it was aimed at "undermining the close ties between the two brother countries."
The latest scare came also comes amid fears of attacks against Israel by Hezbollah, which blamed the Jewish state for Mughnieh’s murder.
Riyadh on Monday advised Saudi citizens against traveling to the country "due to the unstable political and security conditions" and urged those already in Lebanon to be cautious when moving around.
The French embassy also said it had closed cultural centres in the southern port of Sidon and in the northern coastal city of Tripoli "for security reasons."
Last week the United States issued a travel advisory saying US citizens "should, as always, maintain a low profile."
On January 30, the British embassy also issued reminded its citizens living in Lebanon "to avoid large crowds and public demonstrations which have the potential to turn violent" and reiterated its advice against travel to Lebanon.
