Shafiq al-Wazzan

Shafiq al-Wazzan

Schafiq al-Wazzan ( French Chafic Wazzan , English Shafik Wazzan ; Arabic شفيق أديب الوزان, DMG Šafīq Adīb al-Wazzān ; born in Beirut in 1925 ; died on July 8, 1999 ibid) was a Lebanese politician .

Life

Schafiq al-Wazzan began his political career in 1968 when he was elected member of the National Assembly (Assemblée nationale du Liban) . Between January 1969 and October 1970 he was Minister of Justice in Prime Minister Raschid Karami's sixth cabinet . At the same time he was Minister for Post, Telegraphy and Telecommunications.

As a Sunni Muslim without a strong political power of his own, he finally became Prime Minister himself as a compromise candidate on October 25, 1980, succeeding Takieddine Solh . Nevertheless, his government, which was in office until April 30, 1984, was one of the most stable governments in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War , which lasted from 1975 to 1990. In his government he also took over the office of Minister of the Interior .

As Israel in the Lebanon War in June 1982. in Lebanon invaded and Beirut besieged thereby the Palestine Liberation Organization to expel (PLO), he offered himself and his government as a mediator between the PLO of Yasser Arafat and Philip Habib , the envoy of US President Ronald W. Reagan at. At a point in the negotiations that was accompanied by heavy bombardment of the Palestinian- controlled Muslim neighborhoods of Beirut, Wazzan threatened to break the negotiations by saying, in front of the television cameras, “Enough! Enough! ”Yelled. The negotiations eventually led to the deployment of United States Marines as part of the multinational United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and, as a result, to the withdrawal of thousands of Palestinian fighters and Syrian army units from Beirut.

In 1983 negotiations between the governments of Lebanon and Israel began to withdraw the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from Lebanon. However, the agreement of May 17, 1983, which was reached after lengthy negotiations with the participation of US Secretary of State George P. Shultz , was never implemented. Under pressure from Syria, Lebanese President Amin Gemayel did not sign this agreement, so the Israeli army remained stationed in the border region of southern Lebanon . At the same time, the deal resulted in Wazzan generating disapproval within the Muslim community so that he and his government were boycotted by Lebanon's Muslim leaders .

When he was dismissed by President Gemayel on April 30, 1984 and Raschid Karami was reappointed Prime Minister, he largely withdrew from active political life. In December 1991, he escaped an assassination attempt that was carried out on him with a car bomb in Beirut.

Web links

• rulers.org

predecessor	Office	successor
Takieddine Solh	Prime Minister of Lebanon October 25, 1980 - April 30, 1984	Rashid Karami