Lebanon's former security chief Major General Abbas Ibrahim

A key figure in the set piece that helped shape global politics of our region.

His first major cases at the head of General Security came after the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011. In 2013, he negotiated with Qatar to release Lebanese

Shiite hostages who had been held for 13 months by Syrian Sunni rebels. They were captured on their way back from a pilgrimage in Iran.

In March 2014, he negotiated the release of Christian nuns from the Syrian town of Maaloula who had been kidnapped by jihadists four months earlier north of Damascus. It was Ibrahim who was then contacted to free various Western hostages in Syria. Thanks to his mediation, Kristian Lee Baxter (Canadian) and Sam Goodwin (American) were released in the summer of 2019. Ibrahim also succeeded in convincing Tehran, in June 2019, to release Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese resident of the United States who was arrested in 2015 while visiting Iran, on charges of “spying” for Washington.

He became known for his mediation between conflicting parties after serving for almost 12 years at the helm of General Security, as he forged connections with – and between – people with directly opposed views. Ibrahim has been linked with a potential political role in the country ever since he left Beirut’s security apparatus at the beginning of this year 2023.

Ibrahim’s patriotic political and social responsibility has always pushed him to serve people and their rights wherever and whenever they are exactly as what happening now in Gaza.