Brig. Gen. Elias Baissari replaces Abbas Ibrahim as Lebanon’s General Security chief

Following weeks of failed efforts to find a legal solution that would allow for the extension of General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim’s term, Brig. Gen. Elias Baissari was declared medically fit for the post which he will assume effective Thursday March 2, 2023

The medical committee of General Security approved on Tuesday the extension of Baissari’s commission for nine months, amid questions over his fitness relating to injuries he suffered in a car bomb attack almost 20 years ago.

 Baissari will assume the position for a period of 6 months or until a new president is elected and a new government is formed and a new General Security chief is appointed

As of March 2, Ibrahim will retire from his position

Baissari previously served temporarily in the same role in 2019, when Ibrahim was abroad. Questions over his fitness relate to injuries he suffered in the bombing of the car of former deputy speaker Elias Murr in 2005. Baissari spent a month in a coma but recovered and returned to his post.

Several anti Syrian leaders were assassinated following the assassination of former PM Raffic Hariri in 2005 , Murr was one of the lucky few that survived the assassination attempt

Hezbollah operatives were indicted in the murder of Hariri by a UN backed court but the party refused to hand them over.

Many high-ranking military and administrative officers including the central bank governor Riad Salameh are due to retire this year, as the state continues to be without a president and fully functioning government

Ibrahim who will turn 64 on March 2 and who has been the general director of the General Directorate of General Security since 18 July 2011 emerged during the last few years as a master deal-broker, from securing the return of hostages and prisoners held abroad to mediating in seemingly intractable political feuds at home.

He became an increasingly visible pointman on thorny issues

Critics argue that Ibrahim owes his clout to the support he has from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group but the General Security chief has worked to preserve an image of political neutrality.

Ibrahim forged a strong and trusting relationship with the powerful Shiite group when he was army intelligence chief for the south of the country.

“But any breach of (Hezbollah’s) trust would spell the end of Ibrahim’s professional and political career.” one observer told AFP in Feb 2021

Over a decade as Lebanon’s spymaster, he has deftly walked that tightrope and built a growing reputation as a regional troubleshooter.

The spymaster, a rare senior Lebanese official with direct lines to both Hezbollah and Washington, was also involved in efforts to elucidate the fate of Austin Tice, an American journalist who went missing in Syria in 2012.

He was effective at “international diplomacy, which made Western governments reluctant to impose sanctions on him for his links to Hezbollah.”

However, he was charged with negligence in in the devastating 2020 port explosion by Judge Tarek Bitar , who has been probing the blast that killed about 345, injured about 7000 and left about 300, 000 homeless

Abbas was the first Lebanese official who linked the explosion to the chemicals that were illegally stored at the port