Michel Suleiman

Michel Suleiman (ميشال سليمان ; born 21 November 1948) is a Lebanese Maronite Christian politician who served as President of Lebanon from 2008 to 2014.

Suleiman was born in Amsheet in a Maronite Christian family on 21 November 1948.

He joined the Lebanese Armed Forces in 1967 and went on to graduate from the military academy as 2nd lieutenant in 1970.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in politics and administrative sciences from the Lebanese University.

During his military career, he participated in several military training courses :

During his military service, he progressed from an infantry platoon leader to a Battalion Commander, and then assumed the position of a trainer in the Military Academy and in the non-commissioned officer School.

From 25 December 1990 until 21 August 1991 he was appointed as the Chief of the Intelligence Branch of Mount Lebanon.

The Lebanese Army Intelligence of Mount Lebanon was after the detention of hundreds of anti-Syrian demonstrators with some cases of reported torture.

On 25 August 1991 he was reassigned to the post of the Army Staff Secretary-General until 10 June 1993.

He was commander of the 11th Infantry Brigade from 6 June 1993 to 15 January 1996, a period that witnessed violent confrontations with the Israeli forces in the West Beqaa Valley and South Lebanon regions.

On 15 January 1996 he was appointed as commander of the 6th Infantry Brigade and remained in this position until 21 December 1998, when he was appointed as the commander of the Armed Forces.

He was appointed commander-in-chief of the Lebanese army, although there were dozens of officers higher in rank and seniority.

His appointment was reported to be a result of his family relations with a Syrian high-level official.

Before becoming president, he served as commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces from 1998 to 2008.

After Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) commander Émile Lahoud took office as president in November 1998, Suleiman succeeded him, taking his place in December.

On 19 May 2007, the Lebanese Army entered into a prolonged conflict with Fatah al-Islam, a terrorist organization based in the Nahr al-Bared Refugee Camp in northern Lebanon.

The conflict lasted until 2 September 2007 and ended with the Lebanese Army taking complete control of the camp and the complete defeat of Fatah al-Islam.

170 Lebanese soldiers, 226 members of Fatah al-Islam, and 64 civilians (mostly Palestinian refugees) were killed in the fighting.

Due to a number of reasons, including balancing the interests of Lebanese citizens, concerns for the safety of Palestinian refugees, and respecting the delicate political balance that existed in Lebanon at the time, Suleiman was forced to proceed in the conflict with extreme caution and managed to do so successfully, backed by popular and political support for the LAF.

On 23 November 2007, the term of Emile Lahoud, the 11th president of Lebanon, came to an end.

At the time, the Lebanese political spectrum was deeply polarized, with virtually all parties being divided either in the government loyalists (known as 8 March camp), or the opposition (known as 14 March camp).

Suleiman was later elected President and was sworn into office on 25 May 2008.

On 7 May 2008, an ongoing political crisis between government loyalists and the opposition quickly spiraled out of control when Hezbollah announced that the government's decisions to declare the group's private telecommunications network as illegal and to relieve the head of security at Beirut International Airport (an alleged Hezbollah sympathizer) of his duties amounted to a "declaration of war".

Fighting immediately broke out throughout the country, with members of Hezbollah and its allies in the Amal Movement and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party quickly bearing down on their enemies in the Future Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party.

The fighting lasted until 14 May 2008, when the Lebanese government canceled its two decisions after the proposition of Suleiman to do so.

As the crisis ended, Suleiman was the subject of criticism by some commentators and politicians since the Army did not directly intervene in the armed clashes that took place but instead tried to separate between fighters and protected political figures.

On the other hand, others defended his stance by arguing that the only way to preserve the Army's unity and prevent another civil war was to ensure that it remained uninvolved in the fighting against the Lebanese citizens.

These difficulties were eventually resolved during the negotiations that took place in Doha, Qatar from 17 to 20 May 2008.

The negotiations were attended by senior representatives from all of Lebanon's major political parties, and the agreement confirmed that Suleiman would be the preferred candidate in the presidential election.

When the vote was finally held in Parliament on 25 May 2008, Suleiman was elected with a majority of 118 votes out of 127.

He was indirectly elected by the Lebanese Parliament, which hadn't had a session, as a result of the ongoing political crisis in the country, for 18 months.

Parliament's session was attended by senior representatives from across Lebanon, the Arab region, the United Nations and the European Union, the United States, European states and many other countries.

In his acceptance speech which was welcomed by all political figures across the country, the Arab region and the rest of the world, Suleiman spoke of "uniting and working towards a solid reconciliation of the country. We have paid dearly for our national unity. Let us preserve it hand-in-hand".

He also made reference to the long-standing crisis between the country's two main political camps when he said that "the people have given us their confidence to fulfill their aspirations, not to afflict them with our petty political disputes".

However, his election could not take place until a number of fundamental disagreements between 14 and 8 March camps could be resolved, including the issue of whether a government of national unity should be formed, and what specific electoral law should be passed in preparation for the parliamentary elections that were to take place in 2009.

The two camps could not come to an agreement as to who should become the country's 12th president, and so, as a result of a provision in the country's constitution, the powers of the presidency transferred to the government in the expectation that an agreement would be reached shortly afterwards.

Several names were advanced as potential candidates for the presidency, including Michel Aoun, Nassib Lahoud, Jean Obeid, amongst others, each of whom was affiliated either to 14 March or 8 March camps.

It soon became apparent however that only an independent candidate would be acceptable to both sides.

Suleiman was generally accepted as being the only possible candidate and as a unifying candidate.

Most Lebanese commentators and policy makers agreed that Suleiman had won the trust of both the government and opposition camp, and that of most countries in the Arab region, as well as most Western countries.