René Moawad

René Moawad (1925 – November 22, 1989) was President of Lebanon for 17 days in 1989, from the 5th to the 22nd of November, when he was assassinated. A Maronite Christian noted for his moderate views, Moawad had given some citizens hope that the long civil war in Lebanon could be ended. Chawki Choveri, Lebanon's UN representative, said that "This is the major catastrophe of the years of catastrophies we have had so far. We may have lost one of the last opportunities to unite the nation." He was succeeded by Elias Hrawi.

Moawad made his first foray into politics in 1951, when he unsuccessfully contested a Zgharta seat in the National Assembly. Although he was defeated, the election forged a crucial alliance between him and the powerful Frangieh clan, which dominated local politics in Zgharta. He was subsequently elected to the National Assembly in 1957, and reelected in 1960, 1964, 1968, and 1972 – the last parliamentary election held before his election to the presidency (the civil war that raged from 1975 to 1990 prevented further elections from being held in the meantime).

In 1952, Moawad was briefly arrested and detained in Aley for participating in the national uprising that forced the resignation of President Béchara El-Khoury, Lebanon's first post-independence leader. He also fell out with Khoury's successor, Camille Chamoun, when the latter hinted at a possible constitutional change to extend his six-year term which was due to expire in 1958. He went into exile in Latakia, Syria. It was during his exile that he won his first election to the National Assembly.

Moawad became a strong supporter of Chamoun's successor, Fuad Chehab. He served as Minister of Posts and Telecommunications in the government of Prime Minister Rashid Karami (also a Cheahbist) from 31 October 1961 to 20 February 1964. He later served as Minister of Public Works, again under Karami, from 16 January to 24 November 1969, in the presidency of Chehab's successor, Charles Hélou. In 1970, however, he broke with the Chehabists to support the election to the presidency of his old ally, Suleiman Frangieh, against the Chehabist candidate, Elias Sarkis. Frangieh won by a single vote.

On 25 October 1980, Moawad returned to the Cabinet as Minister of National Education and Fine Arts, in the government of President Elias Sarkis (who had succeeded Frangieh in 1976) and Prime Minister Shafik Wazzan, a position he held until the expiry of Sarkis's term on 24 September 1982. The strength of his alliance with Suleiman Frangieh was severely tested in that year, when Moawad voted to support Bachir Gemayel, Frangieh's enemy, for the presidency. Despite Frangieh's anger, their friendship was so deep that it survived the test.

Following the Taif Agreement to end the civil war, the National Assembly met on November 5 at the Qoleiat air base in North Lebanon and elected Moawad as the first President of Lebanon since Amine Gemayel had left office when his term expired in 409 days earlier in 1988; the National Assembly had failed to elect a successor at that time. Seventeen days later, while he was returning from Lebanon's Independence Day celebrations on November 22, 1989, a 250-kg car bomb was detonated next to Moawad's motorcade in West Beirut, killing him and 23 others.

No investigation into the murder has ever been carried out. Sixteen years later, the identity and motives of those responsible remain a matter of debate. Some blamed General Michel Aoun, who headed a rival administration in Baabda and refused to accept the Taif Agreement or the subsequent presidential election. Others pointed to Syria: although elected with Syrian support, Moawad refused to be their puppet. Moawad's widow has hinted that she suspects Syria. Returning from the Cedar Revolution protest against the Syrian occupation on 14 March 2005, Nayla Moawad declared, "The independence of Lebanon was regained on March 14, and on March 14 I felt that I avenged (my husband's) assassination."

Nayla Moawad, born Nayla Najib Issa El-Khoury, whom Moawad married in the 1960s, is a relative of Moawad old political opponent Béchara El-Khoury. Despite the historical animosity between their two families, as well as the fact that she was fifteen years his junior, the marriage was evidently a happy one. They had two children: Rima (a lawyer and a graduate of Harvard University in the United States), and Michel (a lawyer and businessman who graduated from Sorbonne University in Paris).

Moawad's widow was elected to the National Assembly in 2000. She is a member of the opposition Qornet Shehwan Gathering, which opposes the Syrian military presence in Lebanon. In 2004 she announced her candidacy for the Presidency to succeed Émile Lahoud, whose term was supposed to end in November. In the event, however, the National Assembly bowed to evident Syrian pressure and amended the constitution to extend Lahoud's six-year term for another three years.

External links

• Fondation René Moawad