Berry, Nabih

Nabih Berry was born on January 28, 1938 in the capital of Sierra Leone Freetown (according to other sources ^[1] , in the city of Bo ) in a family of Lebanese Shiite emigrants ^{[2] [3] [4]} . Having moved to Lebanon, he studied at the elementary school of the city of Tibnin , then at the Al-Makassed School and the School of Wisdom (Ecole de la Sagesse) in Beirut ^[4] . He entered the Faculty of Law of the University of Lebanon , became known as a political activist, headed the student council ^[2] . Having received a bachelor's degree in 1963, he went to study at the Sorbonne , where he received a master's degree ^{[3] [4]} . In the 1960s, he joined the movement of Arab nationalists ^[2] .

From the first half of the 1970s, he worked as a lawyer at General Motors Corporation , first in the Beirut office, and then in the USA . From 1976 to 1978 he lived in the city of Dearborn (Michigan) ^[3] . In the 1970s, he was a legal adviser to the Shiite Amal movement, which was led by Musa Sadr . In 1978, after the mysterious disappearance of Sadr, Berry returned to Lebanon and in 1980 became the leader of Amal ^[3] . Since the outbreak of the civil war in Lebanon in 1975, Amal has maintained close ties with Syria, and under the leadership of Berry they have been intensively developed. The regime of Hafez al-Assad supplied the militants with weapons and engaged in their combat training ^[2] .

After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Amal, like other pro-Syrian groups, fought against US-led international forces and sought to weaken the central government, which had to abandon the agreements reached with Israel ^[2] . In February 1984, Berry militants took part in the expulsion of Christian Lebanese forces from West Beirut ^[3] , which greatly strengthened the influence of the Amal leader ^[2] . He actually became a leading Shiite leader and entered the government as Minister of Reconstruction of southern Lebanon, and then Minister of Justice and Electric and Hydraulic Resources ^{[2] [3] [4]} . In the mid-1980s, Berry, with the support of Syria, played a key role in the fight against the influence of the Palestine Liberation Organization ^[2] . Amal militants attacked Palestinian refugee camps supporting Yasser Arafat ; as a result, several thousand people died ^[2] . In 1985, Amal militants took 153 TWA passengers hostage. One of them was killed before Berry acted as a negotiator. According to the press, the details of the negotiations were not announced, but the remaining hostages were released after 17 days ^[3] .

In September 1985, together with two other leaders of the Lebanese pro-Syrian groups - Walid Jumblatt and Elie Hobeika - Berry signed an agreement developed by Damascus , which effectively secured Syrian control over the Lebanese state ^[2] . The agreement caused strong discontent among Maronite Christians and Sunni Muslims and was not ratified by Lebanese President Amin Zhmayel ^{[2] [5]} . Berry's desire for one-man leadership in the movement and his unquestioning submission to the Syrians led to a decrease in the popularity of Amal and the departure of a number of its leaders. Berry, fearing for his safety, moved to Damascus in 1986 , where he spent nine months ^[2] . In the second half of the 1980s, Syrian forces repeatedly came to the rescue of Amal militants who fought with other groups, including the rival Shiite organization Hezbollah ^{[2] [3]} .

In the late 1980s, Berry supported Damascus’s efforts to remove Lebanon’s President General Michel Aoun , despite the fact that he enjoyed considerable support in the Shiite community. ^[2] In 1992, with the patronage of Syria, Berry became the chairman of the parliament - the Lebanese National Assembly : this is the highest post that, according to the constitution of the country, can be occupied by a Muslim Shiite ^{[2] [4] [3]} . He remained an unchanged ally of Syria and sought the actual transformation of Lebanon into a satellite state ^[2] . In 1995, Berry, in accordance with the wishes of Damascus, achieved an extension of the presidential term for three years for Elias Hravi ^[2] . In 2004, the same was done in relation to another head of state - Emil Lahoud ^[3] .

In May-June 2005 , after the so-called " cedar revolution ", which led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, anti-Syrian forces won the parliamentary elections. Berry's supporters came together with their rivals in the Shiite camp, Hezbollah. Together, Shiite parties won 35 seats in parliament ^{[6] [7]} - 14 of them were occupied by Amal representatives ^[8] . The nominal status of the allies did not prevent the members of the two groups from periodically entering into armed confrontation ^[3] . Representatives of Hezbollah and Amal entered the new government of Fuad Signora , created in June 2006 ^{[3] [9]} . On June 28, Berry, who received the support of the anti-Syrian majority, was confirmed as speaker for a new four-year term ^{[8] [10]} .

After the start of the armed confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel in July 2006, most of the leaders of Hezbollah were forced to hide, and Berry was the main mediator between the group of Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and the West ^[3] . According to Lebanese sources, the United States established contacts with Berry in the mid-1990s: the fact is that he was more acceptable to Americans as a representative of Lebanese Shiites than any Hezbollah ^[3] . During a visit to Lebanon by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on July 24, Berry on behalf of Hezbollah rejected a ceasefire proposed by the Americans ^[3] . In early August 2006, Berry said that the draft UN Security Council resolution on Lebanon, developed by the United States and France, if adopted, could lead to an “endless” war ^[11] .

In November 2006, a new political crisis began in Lebanon. One of its reasons was plans to create an international tribunal to investigate the death of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri , which was opposed by pro-Syrian forces. On November 11, five ministers representing Hezbollah and Amal in the cabinet resigned ^{[12] [13] [14]} . Berry declared unconstitutional subsequent cabinet meetings. ^[12] The crisis escalated after the November 21 assassination of Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel , known for his anti-Syrian views ^{[14] [15] [13]} .

The political crisis in Lebanon lasted a year and a half. During this period, Berry participated in attempts to resolve the situation by negotiating on behalf of the opposition with Prime Minister Signora, the son of the murdered Prime Minister and parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri ^{[16] [17] [18]} , but continued to insist on the creation of a government of national unity , in which the opposition would receive a veto ^[19] . In addition, Berry refused to convene parliamentary meetings to ratify documents regarding the organization of an international tribunal for the murder of Rafik Hariri, but in May 2007 the UN Security Council decided to convene a tribunal at the request of Signora ^{[20] [19]} . In the spring of 2007, Berry called on Saudi Arabia to mediate in the negotiations and hold a conference to resolve the Lebanese crisis, but the Lebanese government refused to participate in such a conference ^[21] . The situation in Lebanon was even more aggravated when in the fall of 2007 the Lebanese parliament could not elect a new president due to the boycott of the opposition, and incumbent President Lahoud left his post in November ^{[22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27 ]} . It was noted that due to the lack of consensus between the parliamentary majority and the opposition from autumn 2007 until the end of spring 2008, Berry was forced to postpone the presidential election 20 times ^[28] .

In May 2008, after the riots organized by the Hezbollah movement in the Lebanese capital Beirut, rival Lebanese political forces held talks in Qatar , in which the pro-Western government made significant concessions to resolve the crisis. As a result of the agreement, Michel Suleiman was elected President of Lebanon on May 22, 2008 ^{[29] [30]} . In July 2008, a government of national unity was created in Lebanon, led by Signora, in which the opposition received the veto ^[31] ; during the formation of the government, Berry personally recommended Fauzi Salluh , a well-known supporter of Hezbollah, as Minister of Foreign Affairs ^[32] .

During Israel’s conduct of a military operation in the Gaza Strip against the militants of the Palestinian Hamas movement in December 2008 - January 2009, Berry publicly condemned the Israeli action, met with representatives of Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization, and also called on the heads of Arab parliaments to exert pressure on Israel to terminate the operation ^{[33] [34]} . On January 8, 2009, at the invitation of Berry, the heads of the Iranian parliament , Ali Larijani , the Syrian parliament, Mahmoud al-Abrash, arrived in Lebanon and the Indonesian Parliament , Agung Laxono , who, together with the Lebanese Parliament Speaker, signed an appeal to European Parliament President Hans-Hert Pöttering and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon demanding that Israel be completed ^[35] .

In the first half of 2009, Berry continued to be the main representative of the opposition, with whom foreign figures were negotiating. In particular, in May 2009, on the eve of the next parliamentary elections in Lebanon, US Vice President Joe Biden and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held talks with him ^{[36] [37]} .

In the June 7, 2009 parliamentary elections , a pro-Western bloc of parties led by Saad Hariri won a landslide victory, while the opposition won 57 seats in a 128-seat parliament ^[38] . At the same time, of all the opposition parties, Amal was able to form the largest (12 seats) faction in parliament ^[39] . Berry stated that he fully acknowledges the election results. ^[38] On June 25, Berry was re-elected speaker of the Lebanese parliament, 90 deputies voted for him, including members of the pro-Western and anti-Syrian bloc Hariri, who emphasized that this decision was made for the sake of stability in Lebanon ^{[40] [41] [42]} . After that, the Amal faction in parliament supported Hariri's candidacy for the post of new prime minister, although, as Berry stated, his movement was not going to participate in the new government if it did not act by consensus. ^[43]

• When writing this article, we used material ( text in Wikisource ) from Lentapedia , available under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 Unported license .