Nouhad Machnouk
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Nohad El Machnouk (or Machnouq, ar, نهاد المشنوق; born 1955) is a Lebanese politician who was the Lebanese Minister of Interior and Municipalities and a Member of
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
representing
Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
’s second district. He is a member of the “ Future Bloc” coalition and serves on the Human Rights and Foreign Affairs parliamentary committees. He also serves on the ministerial committee charged with responding to the Syrian refugee crisis.


Early life

Having started his career as a journalist, El Machnouk was hired by Lebanese weekly magazine ''
Annahar ''An-Nahar'' ( ar, النهار, lit=The Day or The Morning) is a leading Arabic-language daily newspaper published in Lebanon. In the 1980s, ''An-Nahar'' was described by the ''New York Times'' and ''Time Magazine'' as the newspaper of record fo ...
'' and wrote extensively on regional issues.


Political career

In 1983, he assumed his first political role as co-founder of ''Al Liqa’ al-Islami'' ("The Islamic Meeting"), a political gathering of prominent politicians and civil society leaders that called for an end to Syrian dominance of Lebanon and a halt to civil conflict. In 1992, he was appointed senior political advisor to Prime Minister
Rafic Hariri Rafic Bahaa El Deen Al Hariri ( ar, رفيق بهاء الدين الحريري; 1 November 1944 – 14 February 2005) was a Lebanese business tycoon and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from ...
. He served in this position until 1998, when he was forced into exile by the Syrian intelligence apparatus for his efforts to reduce Syrian tutelage of the country. Upon the withdrawal of Syrian troops in 2005, he resumed his journalistic career as a weekly columnist for Lebanese daily ''
Assafir ''As-Safir'' ( ar, السفير, lit=The Ambassador), was a leading Arabic-language daily newspaper in Lebanon. The headquarters of the daily was in Beirut. It was in circulation from March 1974 until December 2016. The last issue of the paper wa ...
'', before running for parliament in 2009. In 2014, he was named Minister of Interior and Municipalities in
Tammam Salam Tammam Saeb Salam ( ar, تمّام صائب سلام, ; born 13 May 1945) is a Lebanese politician who was the Prime Minister of Lebanon from February 2014 until December 2016. He also served as the acting President of Lebanon from May 2014 unti ...
’s national unity government. As minister, he devised and implemented a comprehensive security strategy to gradually impose state sovereignty on all the Lebanese territory. This put an end to the rounds of sectarian infighting that had taken place in North Lebanon for a decade and helped dismantle the criminal networks that served as support infrastructures for terrorist groups operating in the northeast of the country. In December 2016, Nohad El Machnouk was appointed Minister of Interior and Municipalities.


Beirut protests

On 22 August 2015, protesters took to the streets of Beirut demanding a resolution to the trash crisis, the protests led to a clash with the riot police who fired tear gas and water cannons at the protesters and shot rubber bullets directly at them and real bullets in the air. Hundreds of people were wounded in the events and the public demanded the prosecution of the responsible forces and the resignation of Machnouk. Machnouk was abroad at the time of the protests. However, upon his return he defended officers involved in controlling the protests and rejected calls for his resignation, describing the aftermath of the protests as vandalism by rioters who had taken advantage of the chaos. At the same time, Machnouk was criticized as a video clip was widely shared online and on Lebanese television, that appeared to show him dancing at a bar on the Greek island of Mykonos as the crisis escalated in Beirut.


External links


Official website

The Washington Institute

The Daily Star



References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Machnouk, Nohad Living people Members of the Parliament of Lebanon 1955 births Politicians from Beirut Government ministers of Lebanon Future Movement politicians