General Abbas Ibrahim and his successor, General Elias Baissari. (Credit: Nabil Ismail/Annahar)
BEIRUT — The Lebanese Ministry of Interior officially appointed General Elias Baissari as the interim head of General Security, replacing General Abbas Ibrahim, the Ministry announced in a circular on Friday.
Baissari's mandate was extended for nine months to act as interim director, as Ibrahim reached retirement age on Thursday.
Baissari will serve as acting General Security (GS) head until a new government is formed under Lebanon's next president. The current caretaker government is not empowered to appoint a new head of the security service.
After much turmoil, the mandate of Ibrahim — who spent nearly 12 years as head of GS— was not extended, despite support from Hezbollah.
The Shiite officer, who hails from southern Lebanon, quickly established himself as an effective mediator on the local and international scenes, often acting as a liaison between bitter adversaries.
His first major cases as the head of GS came after the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. He also negotiated with Qatar in 2013 for the release of Lebanese Shiites held by Syrian Sunni rebels for 13 months. In March 2014, he secured the release of Christian nuns in Maaloula, who were kidnapped by jihadists four months earlier.
Ibrahim was also contacted to help free Western hostages in Syria during the summer of 2019. Thanks to his mediation, Canadian Kristian Lee Baxter and American Sam Goodwin were released. In Tehran that same summer, he also managed to secure the release of Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese resident in the United States who was arrested while visiting Iran in 2015.
Gen. Ibrahim is believed to be a major asset for Hezbollah, which took advantage of the general's strong network and negotiating skills to break out of its international isolation.
The extension of his mandate ran into an institutional blockage, more than four months after Lebanon's presidential vacancy set in.
On the one hand, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri refrained from convening a plenary session in the face of a reported boycott by dozens of parliamentarians — notably Christians, including the Aounists — who oppose any legislative action while Lebanon is still without a president.
On the other hand, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati refused to discuss the issue at the last meeting of his cabinet. He said it was up to Parliament to amend the retirement age for civil servants.
Ibrahim, who is considered by some to be a potential replacement for Nabih Berri as Parliament speaker, might soon embark on a career in politics. He told reporters on Wednesday that he has his eye on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
However, Ibrahim is among the officials being prosecuted in the investigation of the deadly Aug. 4, 2020, Beirut port explosion. He has thus far refused to appear before lead investigating Judge Tarek Bitar.