Naharnet, Lebanon
Beirut, 23 Sep 07, 15:59

Nine Years of Lahoud in Office

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, whose mandate expires
in November, has insisted on serving his full extended
term despite pressure from a majority that considers
him a puppet of neighboring Syria.
Backed by Damascus and its Lebanese allies, mainly the
Shiite militant group Hizbullah, he has resisted a
barrage of calls for his resignation and been snubbed
for the past two years by most Western states.

When his term expires on Nov. 24, the 71-year-old
former army chief, known for a perennial smile and
year-round suntan which triggers critics to claim that
he spends most of his time at the beach, will complete
nine years in office.

He was elected president in 1998 and had been due to
step down in 2004, but the country’s then powerbroker
Syria pushed through parliament a controversial
constitutional amendment extending his term for three
more years.

His own Maronite church strongly opposed his
re-election and the anti-Syrian ruling majority and
Western officials have since boycotted him.

He in turn has refused to recognize the legitimacy of
Prime Minister Fouad Saniora’s government following
the November resignation of six pro-Syrian ministers.

Lebanon has been in political limbo since the February
2005 murder of former Premier Rafik Hariri, which
forced Syria to end its 29-year military presence in
the country.

Four top Lebanese generals close to Lahoud have
already been jailed under the international
investigation into Hariri’s murder in which senior
Syrian officials have been implicated. Syria denies
any links with the assassination.

Born January 12, 1936, Lahoud hails from the mountain
town of Baabdat, east of Beirut. He comes from a
Maronite family that has produced cabinet ministers,
MPs, military men and magistrates.

His mother and wife are both of Armenian descent and
he has three children. His eldest son was a member of
parliament between 2000 and 2005.

Lahoud entered the political arena after a long
military career.

He first enrolled in military school in 1956 and
became a naval officer in 1959 before earning a
maritime engineering degree in Britain and completing
military training in the United States.

After his return to Lebanon, he was promoted to
commander in the 1970s and held several senior
positions at the defense ministry before becoming
commander-in-chief of the army in November 1989.

His troops took part in the October 1990 Syrian-led
military offensive that ended the rebellion of
then-Prime Minister General Michel Aoun, who was later
forced into exile in France.

Ironically, the two men are now in the same opposition
camp.

After the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, Lahoud
succeeded in reuniting and rebuilding the Lebanese
army, which had splintered during wartime into feuding
Christian and Muslim factions.

He gave cautious backing for Hizbullah’s fight against
Israel’s occupation of south Lebanon that led to a
unilateral Israeli withdrawal in May 2000 during his
first mandate.

However, he took no steps to assert Lebanese military
control over the south until an Israeli offensive in
July-August 2006 forced Hizbullah to end its military
presence on the borders with the Jewish state.

Parliament first elected Lahoud as president in
October 1998. He promised then to establish a state of
law and to put an end to endemic corruption in public
life.
But he was unsuccessful, hampered by the cronyism that
lies at the root of Lebanese society.(AFP-Naharnet)