Former Lebanese Parliament Speaker Hussein Al-Husseini died Wednesday at the age of 86, after a political career marked by several posts, most notably his pioneering role in the Taif accord, which ended 15 years of civil war in Lebanon.
And the official National News Agency reported that Al-Husseini died Wednesday morning, “due to an acute flu that required his transfer to the intensive care room” eight days ago.
Al-Husseini was elected deputy for the Baalbek-Hermel constituency in the Bekaa (east) region for five consecutive terms, the first in 1972 until his resignation from parliament in 2008 amid deep political division which led to the institutional paralysis in Lebanon. In 2018, he announced his reluctance to run for parliamentary elections, which practically marked the end of his political career.
He led Parliament during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) between 1984 and 1992.
In 1989, he played a key role in achieving the Taif Agreement that ended the civil war. Many see him as the “godfather” of the Taif Agreement and the main advocate for completing its implementation. He has repeatedly stated that he keeps the minutes of the sessions held in the Saudi city of Taif, and their contents remain confidential.
Al-Husseini is known for his sobriety, diplomacy, moderation of his positions and his distance from the contradictions that have characterized the Lebanese political scene since the end of the civil war, and which have repeatedly been reflected in the paralysis of the institutions and the work of the government .
Interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati al-Husseini wept. And he announced in a note the official mourning for a period of three days, starting today, Wednesday.
Mikati said in a statement that Al-Husseini’s “pioneering role in the Taef Accord Conference era had great credit in approving the national reconciliation document that ended the Lebanese war.”
He added: “He knew, with his patriotic sense and deep awareness of Lebanon’s specificity and role, how to ensure the Lebanese balance at the heart of the constitutional reforms which constitute a guarantee of stability in Lebanon.”
During his political career, al-Husayni co-founded the Lebanese Resistance Regiments Movement (Amal) together with Imam Musa al-Sadr. Following the latter’s death, he assumed the general secretariat of the movement between the years 1978 and 1980, the date of the election of Nabih Berri as leader of the movement, who then succeeded him as president of Parliament from 1992.
Al-Husseini, born in 1937 and father of six, is from the city of Bekaa of Shamstar. He graduated from Cairo University with a degree in business administration in 1963.
