Fouad Makhzoumi: Who is the opposition candidate withdrawing from the race to head the Lebanese government?

Last updated 6 hours ago

Fouad Makhzoumi, the opposition candidate for the presidency of the Lebanese government, announced his withdrawal from the race for the presidency of the government, after the decline of the competition with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, the opposition member of Hezbollah Fouad Makhzoumi, and former ambassador Nawaf Salam, whose name is being circulated in the last hours.

Makhzoumi said through his account on the

Makhzoumi justified his withdrawal by saying that “the presence of more than one opposition candidate will inevitably lead to the loss of everyone, and that Lebanon needs a radical change in its approach to governance, and a government that keeps pace with the sovereign and reformist aspirations of the new era.”

End of Twitter post, 1

Before the date of parliamentary consultations to complete the construction of the authority, the Lebanese opposition issued a statement in support of Makhzoumi, the founder of the National Dialogue Party and a member of the opposition Renewal Bloc, and it was signed by 31 deputies, within the opposition bloc that includes representatives of the Forces and Phalange, independents and changers, and the Renewal Bloc, to which Makhzoumi belongs.

Al-Makhzoumi adopts a moderate political approach towards Lebanon’s interior and towards Lebanon’s Arab region regionally. He said in a post on the X platform on December 3, “What is required today is the formation of a political class run by clean-minded individuals who have not been involved in the files of financial and political corruption and quotas, and who have the ability to Bringing people together with a unified discourse based on citizenship and building a state of law and institutions.”

He also stressed the necessity of working to “rebuild confidence, strengthen relations with the Arab and international communities, and attract Lebanese investors in particular and Arab investors in general.”

Makhzoumi was one of the most prominent members of the Lebanese opposition since his election to the Lebanese Parliament in 2018. He always rejected the presence of weapons in the hands of factions and parties and was one of the most vocal critics of Hezbollah’s weapons.

He said in a previous statement to a Lebanese channel on December 3, “We entered into a war that is not our war, and there is no doubt that the Palestinian issue is the issue of all of us, and Lebanon has paid the price of civil wars more than once for the process of supporting the Palestinian cause and the war that began on October 8 with an announcement from Hezbollah should not have been involved in it.”

As he said in a meeting with the Mufti of the Lebanese Republic, Abdel Latif Derian, in Dar al-Qatwa, last December, “I stressed before His Eminence that what is required today is for everyone to be under the protection of the state and for the decision of war and peace not to be in the hands of a specific party or faction, but rather in the hands of the state only.” .

Al-Makhzoumi stressed that he was one of the “strongest opponents” of what was called the “war of support” from its beginning, “and I demanded that we not be drawn into a war that has nothing to do with us, and all hope now is that no one will open a new war of support for Syria.”

End of Twitter post, 2

He also previously called for the necessity of confining weapons to the army, and said in a previous post on the To protect the country and its people and promote stability.”

He added in the post, “We call on all reasonable people to trust the Lebanese legitimate forces with their responsibilities, and to stand behind them in this mission, which enjoys the support of the Lebanese, and the support of the Arab and international communities.”

End of Twitter post, 3

According to the information available about Fouad Makhzoumi, he was born in Beirut to a Sunni family in 1952, graduated from International College in 1970, and obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from Michigan Tech University in 1975.

In the same year, he married Mrs. May Nomani, and had three children, Tamara and Camellia, and his eldest son, Rami, died in 2011.

In 2004, he founded the “National Dialogue” party. He also founded the opposition “Renewal” bloc after winning the legislative elections and entering Parliament in 2018. In addition to him, it includes MPs Ashraf Rifi and Michel Moawad.

He began his working life in Saudi Arabia in 1975, and in 1984 he bought a holding company under the name “Future Management Holding”, which is known today as “Future Group Holdings”, in addition to establishing the Future Pipe Company.

He also established the Makhzoumi Service Foundation in 1997, which is a “non-profit organization aiming to develop civil society in Lebanon” in the areas of vocational training, health care, small loan programs, and other fields.