BEIRUT (AP) – Hussein Husseini, Lebanon’s former parliament speaker and the father of the 1989 agreement that ended the country’s 15-year civil war, died Wednesday after days of illness. He was 85.
Husseini was admitted to Beirut’s American University Medical Center on Jan. 3, after suffering from a strong flu, the state-run National News Agency said. NNA added that Husseini remained in the intensive care unit until his death on Wednesday morning.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati declared a three-day mourning period in Lebanon while Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri postponed a session that was scheduled to take place on Thursday to elect a new president.
Husseini was elected to parliament representing the northeastern Baalbek-Hermel region in 1972 and remained a legislator until 2008. He was elected as parliament speaker in 1984, a job that he kept until 1992.
The politician was a harsh critic of Lebanon’s sectarian-based political system that divided top posts in the country of 5 million between Christian and Muslim communities. Husseini was also a strong vocal opponent of the country’s financial policies, including heavy borrowing, that started in the 1990s and eventually led to Lebanon’s ongoing three-year economic meltdown.
Born to a prominent Shia family in the town of Shmistar in the eastern Bekaa Valley in April 1937, Husseini enjoyed wide respect among many Lebanese — especially for his defense of civil rights and for not being involved in corruption.
In 1973, he helped found the Amal Movement that morphed to become one of the most powerful groups during the country’s civil war and helped lift Lebanon’s Shia community from decades of marginalization to a main power-broker in the small nation.
In 1978, he became the head of the Amal Movement but stepped down two years later after he refused to have the group take part in the country’s civil war. He was replaced by Berri who still heads Amal.
As parliament speaker, Husseini was a key power behind the 1989 peace agreement reached between rival Lebanese groups that ended the 15-year civil war in 1990.