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General Émile Geamil Lahoud (Arabic:اميل لحود) (born January 12, 1936) is the current President of Lebanon. He is the son of General Jamil Lahoud, a leader in the independence movement.
Lahoud served under General Michel Aoun during the final years of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-90). Most military officers under Aoun's command were fiercely loyal to their leader during the bloody fighting that continued intermittently for the next six months. Lahoud, however, earned a reputation for cowardice and dereliction of duty that severely alienated his fellow officers. According to one officer who knew him well, any time a shell would land in the vicinity of his office, Lahoud would scramble into a bomb shelter in the basement. During much of the heaviest fighting, Lahoud left the complex entirely and stayed in the basement of the Al-Manar Hotel in Jounieh. "He became the security barometer for many shop owners in Jounieh," the officer told a Lebanese newspaper. "Every time Lahoud used to come to Al-Manar Hotel, the shop owners and other Jounieh residents would realize that things were not normal and that fighting would start soon. Shops would close down and people used to evacuate the streets." Whereas many Lebanese officers abandoned their personal lives during the war of liberation in the service of their country, Lahoud abandoned his professional responsibilities and spent his time philandering, playing poker, and swimming. In September, after an Arab League-brokered cease-fire took effect, Aoun finally fired him and Lahoud crossed over into Syrian-occupied west Beirut several weeks later.
Meanwhile, the Syrians were looking for a Maronite military officer to assume the position of army commander for the pro-Syrian regime in west Beirut, which was endorsed by the 1989 Taif Agreement. Scores of Maronite army officers were offered the job, but they all turned the job down. Finally, Lahoud was offered the position. According to one source, Lahoud had connections to an influential Syria army officer, Ali Hammoud, who recommended him for the job. He quickly accepted.
He served in various posts in the military, including commander-in-chief of the army from 1989 to 1998, and then ran for the presidency in 1998, to general approval.
Under the Lebanese constitution, the President's term was only supposed to be six years. However, in 2004 the parliament voted to extend his term for an additional three years, to 2007. Many Lebanese and international observers agree that the extension was illegal and the constitution was illegally amended.
The parliament was pressured to vote for the constitutional amendment to keep him in power by Syria (the main political broker in Lebanon). Currently he is very unpopular among many different groups in Lebanon, including the Christians led by Cardinal Sfeir and the Druze led by Walid Jumblat. They view him as a puppet controlled by the Syrians.
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