Former MP and minister Mohsen Dalloul passes away at 93

After a media and political career launched alongside assassinated Druze leader Kamal Joumblatt and later continued with his son and former Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) chief Walid Joumblatt, former Lebanese MP and minister Mohsen Dalloul died Tuesday at the age of 93.

Originally from Ali Nahri (Bekaa), Dalloul served as a lawmaker for several consecutive terms between 1991 and 2004, successively representing the constituencies of Baalbeck-Hermel (1991), Zahle (1992 and 2000) and the Bekaa (1996).

He also served as agriculture minister in several successive cabinets between 1989 and 1992, led by Selim Hoss, Omar Karami and Rashid Solh.

In 1992, he was appointed defense minister in the first government of Rafik Hariri, a post he held until 1995, before resuming it from July 11, 1996, in Hariri’s second government, and then in the subsequent cabinet until November 1998.

Born in 1933, Dalloul began his professional life as a teacher in the Bekaa and in Beirut, before turning to journalism and joining the Editors' Syndicate.

He joined the PSP in 1951 and accompanied its founder, Kamal Joumblatt, for 25 years. After the latter’s assassination in 1977, he continued his political involvement alongside his son, Walid.

In a tribute message, Walid Joumblatt praised the memory of Dalloul, recalling “a great friend of Kamal Jumblatt, who accompanied him in the national and Arab struggle for decades.”

He added that he “knew him as loving and sincere in the most difficult moments,” writing, “Farewell, Abou Nizar.”

His eldest son, Nizar Dalloul, a businessman, was the Future Movement's Shiite candidate in the 2018 parliamentary elections in Bekaa I, though he was not elected.

He is also married to the daughter of Nazek Hariri, the second wife of Rafik Hariri.

Former Prime Minister and Future Movement leader Saad Hariri also paid tribute to the deceased in a message posted on X, honoring “the former minister and MP, and the friend who accompanied [his] late father.”

“Lebanon has lost a political figure who dedicated his life to defending his convictions and principles,” he added.

Information Minister Paul Morcos also praised the memory of “one of the figures who managed to combine political action and media work, and who played an active role in public life through his commitment to journalism and his membership in the Editors' Syndicate.”

Over the course of his career, Mohsen Dalloul was tasked with handling extremely sensitive files, including dialogue with former president Michel Aoun regarding the Taif Agreement, discussions with Lebanese parties and militias on collecting arms and withdrawing militias from Beirut, and dialogue with Palestinian organizations.

At the height of the civil war, on June 2, 1976, he hosted in his Beirut apartment a historic meeting between Kamal Joumblatt, then PSP chief, and former president Bachir Gemayel. At the time, Dalloul served as deputy head of the PSP.