Elias Hrawi

- President Elias Hrawi was elected in the autumn of 1989, two days after the assasination of President Rene Moawad, while Lebanon was still plunged into a war which has erupted in 1975.

- President Hrawi pledged to stop the war, reunify the country, carry out constitutional amendments and thus equal participation of all in the government, reinforce governmental institutions and dissolve all militias.

- President Hrawi was born in 1926, in Hawch Al-Umara (Zahle), in a family of landowners. After obtaining a B.A. in Commerce at the Beirut Jesuite University, he soon was one of the first to build a plant for treating and selling vegetables to major companies in Switzerland. In 1974, he headed the Beqaa sugarbeet cooperatives and the Beqaa Federation of agricultural cooperatives. His plant was destroyed during the war and he switched to oil import.

- In 1972, he was elected member of the Parliament, thus following the steps of his brothers, George and Joseph. As Minister of Public Works, from '80 to '82, he built highways, roads and bridges linking together all Lebanese regions.

- He is married to Mouna Jammal and has five children three boys and two girls.

- He strongly believes in coexistence between all Lebanese religious sects (17 officially recognized in Lebanon). His native christian town of Zahle is located in the Beqaa Valley where families of all religious sects live. As such, he played a positive role in putting an end to the 1981 fight in that part of the country.

_{Source: Embassy of Lebanon, USA}