Suleiman Franjieh

Suleiman Franjieh (born June 15, 1910, Zgharta, Lebanon, Ottoman Empire—died July 23, 1992, Beirut, Lebanon) was a Lebanese politician who, as a leader of one of Lebanon’s powerful Maronite Christian clans and president of Lebanon (1970–76), was considered to be in large part responsible for the country’s descent into civil war in the mid-1970s.

Franjieh was educated in Tripoli and Beirut and operated an import-export firm in Beirut. In 1957 he was implicated in the murder of several members of a rival clan and fled to Syria, where he became friends with Ḥafiz al-Assad, later to become president of Syria (1971). Franjieh soon returned to Lebanon to succeed his elder brother, Hamid, as clan leader, and he held a succession of ministerial posts after being elected to his brother’s former seat in parliament (1960).

On August 17, 1970, parliament elected Franjieh president by one vote on the third ballot, but he soon alienated Muslims and Christians alike by his autocratic rule and his promotion of inept and corrupt clansmen, notably his son Tony. In June 1976, shortly before he left office, Franjieh reportedly invited Assad to send troops into Lebanon to assist the Maronite Christians in their growing war against left-wing Muslim and Palestinian forces. Rival clans who opposed Syrian intervention, especially the Gemayel family, allied themselves with Israel. In June 1978, members of the Phalange, a rival Christian militia, murdered Tony along with his wife and daughter, thus cementing the rift between the clans and precluding a quick end to the war.

In the years that followed Franjieh continued to lead his clan while gradually transferring control to his grandson, also named Suleiman. He made another bid for the presidency in the late 1980s, but he became ill before the election could be held. Suffering several ailments, he died of pneumonia in 1992.