WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. diplomat accused of having said “the only good Arab is a dead Arab” in a voice mail left with an Arab-American group has retired from the government, the State Department said on Thursday.

The diplomat, Patrick Syring, was accused of having made abusive, intimidating and racist comments in e-mails and voice mails to employees of the Arab American Institute, a Washington group that promotes Arab-American interests.

The State Department declined comment on the legal case against Syring, which was outlined in an indictment filed at a U.S. federal court on Wednesday, but said the diplomat had decided to retire.

Syring is alleged to have made the comments in a series of e-mails and voice mails to officials the Arab American Institute, including its president James Zogby, when Israel was at war with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas in July 2006.

“The only good Lebanese is a dead Lebanese. The only good Arab is a dead Arab. Long live the IDF. Death to Lebanon and death to the Arabs,” Syring said in a voice mail recorded at the institute on July 17, 2006. IDF stands for Israel Defense Forces -- the Israeli military.

“Fuck the Arabs and Fuck James Zogby and his wicked Hizbollah brothers. They will burn in hellfire on this earth and in the hereafter,” he wrote in an e-mail to Zogby and another institute employee on the same day.

The voice mails and e-mails, which were sent from a personal e-mail address, were quoted in the indictment. Syring served as a U.S. diplomat in the Middle East and most recently worked in Human Resources at the State Department.

He stands accused of violating U.S. law on federally protected rights and of making threatening communications.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined to address the Syring case specifically other than to say he had retired. U.S. officials declined to comment on whether he had decided to retire before or after having allegedly made the remarks.

Speaking generally, McCormack said such comments were unacceptable to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

“Let me just underline for you the seriousness with which the secretary approaches the idea that the State Department should be a workplace that in no way, shape or form tolerates discrimination or hateful language,” he said. “It’s just not condoned or acceptable in this department.”

Calls to Syring’s home in Virginia were not returned.