Adel Osseiran - Milestones

Milestones

• In 1947 he was chosen to mediate a dispute between the Iranian and Saudi Arabian governments over the issue of Iranian pilgrims traveling to Mecca, thus restoring diplomatic relations between the two countries.

• In the same year he was chosen by the Lebanese government to be part of the delegation that traveled to New York to vote against the UN Partition of Palestine.

• In 1952 he took part in the Deir el Qamar conference, a gathering of Lebanese politicians that came together in opposition to the regime of President Bechara el Khoury, and which eventually led to the latter's downfall. In September 1952, Camille Chamoun was elected President of Lebanon, and the following year Adel Osseiran was elected speaker of Parliament, with Ghassan Tueni as Deputy Speaker.

• In 1983 he participated in the Geneva Conference for Peace and Reconciliation in Lebanon.

• In 1984 he participated at the Lausanne Conference for Peace, where he called for secularism, the complete abolition of the confessional (sectarian) system in politics once and for all, and a general revamping of Lebanon's political system. He also shocked the political establishment by calling for "armed resistance" to the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon.

• In 1989 he participated in the Tunisia conference convened by the Six Nation Arab State Commission for Peace in Lebanon.

• His last major political contribution came in 1989, when he participated in the Ta'ef Conference for National Dialogue in Saudi Arabia. The accord that resulted from this conference helped to end the Lebanese Civil War.