Nassib Lahoud is a Lebanese-Christian political figure born on 23 November 1944 in Baabdat

Baabdat

Baabdat is a town located in the Matn District of Mount Lebanon, 22 km from Beirut at an altitude ranging between 800 to 1050 meters above sea level. The lush pine forests that surround the town make it a very popular summer resort for those escaping the busy coastal cities of Lebanon,...

 - Matn

Matn District

Matn , sometimes spelled Metn, is a district in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon, east of the Lebanon's capital Beirut...

, Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

. He has held various political posts including Ambassador to the USA, Member of Parliament and Minister of State. He has also been at various times, a serious presidential contender.

He is part of the Lahoud family, one of the most prominent Lebanese-Christian political families (See List of political families). Lahoud is the son of ex-Member of Parliament, ex- Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defense H.E Salim Lahoud

Salim Lahoud

Salim Lahoud was a Lebanese Maronite-Catholic political figure who was a Member of parliament and Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Defense of Lebanon in the 1950s among other ministerial posts....

 (under President Camille Chamoun in the 1960s).

Lahoud was educated and spent a large portion of his life in the United Kingdom. After finishing his engineering studies, he founded Lahoud Engineering Co. Ltd. (in the early 1970s), whose activities are mostly the construction of large-scale power and heavy industry plants.

His backstage participation in the Taif conference in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

, which ended the destructive Lebanese civil war, made him ambassador to the United States of America, where he enjoyed high-level relationships with leading U.S politicians. In 1991, he returned to Lebanon and was appointed Maronite Christian parliamentarian of the Metn region. He was later re-elected in organised legislative elections in 1992, 1996 and in 2000.

From the beginning of his political life, he situated himself in the opposition to the pro-Syrian governments that ruled the country. He opposed the economic policies of the late prime-minister Rafiq Hariri and to Syrian interference in the Lebanese political scene. He voted against the constitutional amendments imposed by Syria to extend the mandates of presidents Elias Hrawi

Elias Hrawi

Elias Hrawi was a President of Lebanon, whose term of office ran from 1989 to 1998.He was a native of the Beqaa valley. He was elected on 24 November 1989, two days after the assassination of René Moawad, who had held office for just seventeen days...

 (in 1995) and Emile Lahoud

Émile Lahoud

General Émile Jamil Lahoud is a former President of Lebanon. Lahoud is a Maronite-Catholic, as is required for the Lebanese presidency. Under Lebanon's unwritten constitutional agreement, the National Pact, the presidency is earmarked for Maronite_Catholic, the parliament speaker's post for a Shia...

 (in 2004).

In 2001, he joined the Qornet Shehwan Gathering

Qornet Shehwan Gathering

The Qornet Shehwan Gathering is a Lebanese political organization, comprising politicians, intellectuals, and businessmen, mostly Christian and ranging in ideology from the centre-right to the center-left. The organization is not a political party in the classical sense: its members belong to,...

, regrouping prominent Christian opposition figures under the patronage of Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir.

The same year, he founded along with about two hundreds and fifty Lebanese intellectuals (of which Misbah Ahdab, Camille Ziadé, Nadim Salem, Antoine Haddad

Antoine Haddad

Antoine Haddad is a member of the General Secretariat of the March 14 Alliance . The General Secretariat, composed of 8 members, is the executive body of March 14 Coalition....

, Ziad Baroud

Ziad Baroud

Ziad Baroud is a Lebanese lawyer and prominent civil society activist. On May 26, 2011 he resigned from office as Minister of Interior and Municipalities in Saad Hariri's government. His resignation came after the developing conflict between Internal Security Forces and the Ministry of...

, Wafic Zantout, Mona Fayad, Hareth Sleiman,Malek Mroueh, Melhem Chaoul...) The Democratic Renewal Movement. A movement that presents itself as a reformist and laic, opposition political movement. Despite being defamed by traditionalists, and populists, Lahoud and the DRM are extremely respected among intellectual circles.

He was a prominent figure of the anti-Syrian opposition movement that started to organise itself after the extension of the pro-Syrian president Emile Lahoud

Émile Lahoud

General Émile Jamil Lahoud is a former President of Lebanon. Lahoud is a Maronite-Catholic, as is required for the Lebanese presidency. Under Lebanon's unwritten constitutional agreement, the National Pact, the presidency is earmarked for Maronite_Catholic, the parliament speaker's post for a Shia...

's term and which gained more political weight following the assassination of Rafiq Hariri on 14 February 2005.

The Democratic Renewal Movement is part of the March 14 Alliance

March 14 Alliance

The March 14 alliance , named after the date of the Cedar Revolution, is a coalition of political parties and independents in Lebanon that call for sovereignty over all Lebanese territories, led by MP Saad Hariri, younger son of Rafik Hariri, the assassinated former prime minister of Lebanon, as...

, an anti-Syrian coalition (also regrouping Saad Hariri

Saad Hariri

Saad-eddine Rafiq Al-Hariri is a Saudi-Lebanese billionaire who served as the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 2009 until 2011. He is the second son of Rafiq Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister who was assassinated in 2005...

's Future Movement, Amine Gemayel

Amine Gemayel

Amine Pierre Gemayel was President of Lebanon from 1982 to 1988 and is the leader of Kataeb Party.Born in the Lebanese village of Bikfaya, Amine Gemayel is the son of Pierre Gemayel, founder of the Kataeb Party...

's Kataeb Party

Kataeb Party

The Lebanese Phalanges , better known in English as the Phalange , is a traditional right-wing Lebanese political party. Although it is officially secular, it is mainly supported by Maronite Christians. The party played a major role in the Lebanese War...

, Elias Atallah's

Elias Atallah

Elias Atallah born in 1947, is a Lebanese politician, and an elected member of parliament during the 2005 elections. He is also the chairperson of the Democratic Left Movement, and a prominent member in the March 14 Alliance...

 Democratic Left

Democratic Left

Democratic Left, Democratic Left Party, or Party of the Democratic Left may refer to:-Political parties:*Democratic Left *Democratic Left *Democratic Left *Democratic Left *Democratic Left...

, Carlos Éddé's National Bloc and Dory Chamoun's National Liberal Party

National Liberal Party (Lebanon)

The National Liberal Party is a center-right political party in Lebanon, established by President Camille Chamoun in 1958...

). Nassib Lahoud took part in the 2005 legislative elections in his Metn district , at the head of the opposition list. He lost the elections against Michel Aoun

Michel Aoun

Michel Naim Aoun is a former Lebanese Army Commander and he is one of the allies of Hezbollah. From 22 September 1988 to 13 October 1990, he has served as Prime Minister of the legal one of two rival governments that contended for power. He declared "The Liberation War" against the Syrian...

's Free Patriotic Movement

Free Patriotic Movement

The Free Patriotic Movement , also known as the "Aounist Movement" , is a Lebanese political party, led by Michel Aoun and allied with Hezbollah, The movement was officially declared a political party on September 18, 2005Though most of the party's support comes from Lebanon's...

 and allied pro-Syrian figures.

Nassib Lahoud is since 1995 considered to be the most serious candidate for the presidency. Despite his defeat in the last parliamentary elections, he announced that he was prepared to run for president if the March 14 Alliance

March 14 Alliance

The March 14 alliance , named after the date of the Cedar Revolution, is a coalition of political parties and independents in Lebanon that call for sovereignty over all Lebanese territories, led by MP Saad Hariri, younger son of Rafik Hariri, the assassinated former prime minister of Lebanon, as...

 that holds a majority in parliament since the last elections backs him. His willingness to run for the presidency is part of a wider campaign to remove the pro-Syrian president Emile Lahoud

Émile Lahoud

General Émile Jamil Lahoud is a former President of Lebanon. Lahoud is a Maronite-Catholic, as is required for the Lebanese presidency. Under Lebanon's unwritten constitutional agreement, the National Pact, the presidency is earmarked for Maronite_Catholic, the parliament speaker's post for a Shia...

 (Nassib's cousin) who is widely considered to be the last bastion of Syrian hegemony

Hegemony

Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...

 over the country.

In 2008, the parliamentary majority designated Lahoud as its presidential nominee but the Hezbollah-led opposition refused to attend a legislative session to elect a new president, thus ensuring there was no quorum. President Michel Suleiman

Michel Suleiman

Michel Suleiman or Sleiman is the President of Lebanon. Before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces. After LAF commander Émile Lahoud took office as president in November of 1998, Suleiman succeeded him, taking his place in December...

 was later elected by consensus, after Hezbollah supporters attacked majority-affiliated buildings in Beirut, in a show of force reminiscent of the days of the Lebanese civil war. This was due to a refusal by the government to rescind two controversial executive decrees that aimed to dismantle Hezbollah's private telecommunications system as well as sack the military general responsible for airport security.

Nassib Lahoud was later appointed as Minister of State, as the representative of the Ex-Qornet Shehwan Gathering

Qornet Shehwan Gathering

The Qornet Shehwan Gathering is a Lebanese political organization, comprising politicians, intellectuals, and businessmen, mostly Christian and ranging in ideology from the centre-right to the center-left. The organization is not a political party in the classical sense: its members belong to,...

, in the first government under President Michel Suleiman

Michel Suleiman

Michel Suleiman or Sleiman is the President of Lebanon. Before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces. After LAF commander Émile Lahoud took office as president in November of 1998, Suleiman succeeded him, taking his place in December...

mandate.

He withdrew from the 2009 parliamentary elections.

External links

• Nassib Lahoud Home Page, an informative website publishing Nassib Lahoud's personal view and vision for a republic.
• The Democratic Renewal Movement Home Page