Suleiman Frangieh

Suleiman Frangieh, last name also spelt Frangié, Franjieh, or Franjiyeh, (15 June 1910 - 23 July 1992, was President of Lebanon from 1970 to 1976. His presidency saw the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War, which raged from 1975 to 1990, as well as the start of the Syrian military occupation of Lebanon, which continues to this day.

The scion of one of the leading Maronite families of Zgharta, near Tripoli, Frangieh graduated from the Jesuit University in Beirut and went on to run an importing and exporting business. He was briefly threatened with arrest in 1957 when implicated in the murder of several members of a rival clan. He fled to Syria, where he became acquainted with Hafez al-Assad, who was later to become President of Syria. The charges against him were soon dropped, however, and on the death of his brother Hamid Frangieh in 1960, he returned to Lebanon to succeed him as leader of the Frangieh clan and as a National Assembly member of Zgharta.

In the closest and possibly most controversial presidential election in Lebanese history, the National Assembly elected Frangieh to the Presidency of the Republic on August 17 1970. He owed his upset victory over Elias Sarkis to a last minute change of mind by Kamal Jumblatt, whose supporters in the National Assembly switched their votes to Frangieh. Posing as a consensus candidate, Frangieh drew support from both the right and the left and from all religious factions; there was little that united his supporters ideologically except his promise to maintain the semi-feudal system which concentrated power in the hands of local clan leaders known as Zaiyms, a system that many Zaiyms felt was being undermined by reforms enacted by the administrations of Presidents of Fuad Chehab (1958-1964) and Charles Hélou (1964-1970), reforms that Sarkis had pledged to continue. Frangieh's victory also owed something to his willingness to resort to violence: after the third ballot resulted in a 49/49 split, gunmen led by Frangieh's son Tony forced their way into the parliamentary complex and forced the Parliamentary Speaker (who, by custom, had abstained) to use his casting vote in favour of Frangieh.

Frangieh's presidency was widely considered corrupt, even by Lebanese standards. He filled his administration with clansmen from Zgharta, many of whom were regarded as incompetent. When it came to appointing Prime Ministers, his prerequisite was that his son, Tony, had to be included in any Cabinet.

When the Lebanese Civil War began, Frangieh maintained a private army, the Marada Brigade, under the command of Tony. He initially participated in the Lebanese Front, a right-wing, mainly Christian, coalition of politicians and militia leaders, but in early 1978 he broke with them over their tacit collaboration with Israel and his own pro-Syrian leanings. In June 1978, his son Tony, together with his wife and infant daughter, was assassinated by militiamen from the Phalangist militia. Frangieh vowed revenge, but his power thereafter was limited.

Frangieh remained an ally of Syria. He attempted to make a comeback in 1988, but the National Assembly, which had been expected to elect him, failed to achieve a quorum owing to a boycott by some Christian parliamentarians enforced by the Lebanese Forces militia. He died on 23 July 1992, two years after the civil war ended.

Frangieh's grandson, Suleiman Frangieh, Jr is Minister of the Interior in the current Lebanese government. He is regarded as a leading candidate to succeed President Emile Lahoud in 2007.