Minister of Interior Ziad Baroud of Lebanon

Interior Minister Lawyer Ziad Baroud said he received an official invitation to visit Syria, which will likely take place in the next few weeks.

YASA has met with Baroud multiple times over the past few months, and according to Akl, Baroud was “very positive to many subjects we proposed to him.

While Akl noted that Baroud is not responsible for this practice, which became rampant over five years ago, he added that “we are counting on the minister to stop it… Our struggle against corruption began many years ago, and we hope that we will reach results with Mr.

Members of the Lebanese Physical Handicap Union (LPHU) agree that Baroud has facilitated reforms that help NGOs.

But because Baroud comes from civil society and is an articulate advocate of governance and policy reforms, people have started looking at these organizations in a new light.

Mouawwad from LCPS also noted that Baroud is “someone who opened the door for civil society… This is the first time civil society activists can go to the minister and feel at ease.

He argues that Baroud was ready to submit a draft law in order to amend the constitution, but he is very pessimistic that this will ever happen.

At the end of the day, Ziad Baroud is a minister operating in the political realm and not leading a civil society movement.

By all accounts, Baroud has shown himself to be a capable and reformist politician.

Though some activists are disappointed that Baroud has not taken a strong enough stand on the very reforms he once advocated for, perhaps in the coming months, as he is more comfortable as a political figure, he will allow more of Baroud the Activist to emerge and will stand stronger in the face of the Lebanese political machines.

activist, and member of the National Council for a New Electoral Law.

We also want details," Baroud said in a radio interview, which indicates that the judiciary has not been allowed to interrogate Hezbollah fighters who were in the Sujud southern region where the chopper was attacked on Thursday.

He also said the judicial investigation into the event would continue until the end, because Lebanons political leaders have given their support to the judicial process.

Ziad Baroud on landmark visit to Syria to boost security cooperation between two neighbours.

Ziad Baroud is a young, energetic, promising human rights lawyer with extensive experience in electoral reform in Lebanon.

Ziad Baroud is a Managing Partner at Haddad Baroud Daher and Tohme Law Firm in Beirut, Lebanon.

Baroud is the Secretary-general of the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections and the Retainer legal counselor for the World Bank’s office in Beirut.

Baroud received his Master in Law from Universite Saint-Joseph in 1992, and his Diploma in Conflict Resolution from Lebanese American University in 1996.

Ziad Baroud is a lawyer and human rights activist.

Baroud said the incident in which a journalist from Future TV was assaulted by a group of political party members when he was reporting the removal of posters of political figures from the streets of Beirut was dealt with in a very prompt manner and the case was now in the hands of the court.

Baroud said Lebanon was facing the threat of terrorism as any other country in the world and was cooperating with its only friendly neighbour, Syria as per the agreements between the two country.

Baroud was the first interior minister in Lebanon to visit Syria last month since the 2005 assassination of Prime Minister, Rafik Al Hariri that shadowed relations between the two countries.

Baroud was accompanied by Lebanese security chiefs Wafiq Jizzini and Ashraf Rifi.

Baroud said he would be pleased to have Carters monitoring team in the country when the vote was held.

Interior Minister Ziad Baroud said on Sunday that the Independent Municipal Fund would distribute LL 290 billion to municipalities without political interference and according to the law.

BEIRUT, Dec 11 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Interior Minister Ziad Baroud said Thursday that Lebanon welcomes any international surveillance on the upcoming parliamentary elections as long as it is neutral.

Lebanese Interior Minister Ziad Baroud said Thursday that Lebanon welcomes any international surveillance on the upcoming parliamentary elections as long as it is neutral.

Interior Minister Ziad Baroud has criticized the way the supervisory election campaign commission was formed during the recent cabinet meeting.

Regarding the election law, Baroud said he was disappointed with the law, which he said it represents only 30% of what he had proposed.

Asked if this would force him to resign, Baroud said that he considered doing so.

Interior Minister Ziad Baroud said that Lebanese authorities had not asked former US President Jimmy Carter, who is currently visiting Lebanon, to monitor the parliamentary elections in 2009, nor had Carter made any such request.

Baroud said Carter had only expressed a willingness keep abreast of the elections, as he has done previously in many countries.

In an interview with Tele Liban on Tuesday, Baroud said that the cabinet would nonetheless make a final decision on whether Carter would participate in any manner.

Ziad Baroud is to be accompanied by Lebanon's security chiefs Wafiq Jizzini and Ashraf Rifi, the president's office said.

Ziad Baroud is secretary-general of the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections.

Baroud said that the three names he presented had been suggested in the cabinet’s meeting last Saturday and were agreed upon by consensus after each name was discussed.

Baroud said that the interior minister had the privilege to form the committee and suggest the names of possible members, which made the appointment of Ghacham a violation of the law.

Baroud said that he was not influenced by sectarian considerations.

Baroud said that he would make all efforts to make the committee’s work a success, adding that its formation was a positive and that its success depended on its ability to form a new electoral law after the 2009 elections ended.

Baroud said the committee would hold its first meeting Monday afternoon.

Baroud said that he has given the ISF Directorate General an ultimatum expiring at the end of the year in order to settle the issue of reshuffling ISF officers.

Now, we have Ziad Baroud, and Ziad Baroud has an excellent reputation.

Khoury: I think that the criticism is undue.

The test for Ziad Baroud is from now to the 2009 elections.

Baroud said that the explosion was a terrorist act that involves all the Lebanese without any exceptions.

his Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Sheikh Jaber Al-Khalid Al-Sabah here on Monday.

Baroud was accompanied by two senior security officers, Wafiq Jizzini from General Security and Ashraf Rifi of the Internal Security Forces, or ISF.

For his part, Baroud said commenting on the arrests that took place in Lebanon on the confessions backdrop of Kazaz perpetrators in Damascus "it is a follow-up issue as the Lebanese side requested to be informed of all information available.

Baroud said that these violations were not only against university students, but had reached the whole public.

However, Baroud said that he did not blame the government ­ because it had no right to make such a decision.

Baroud was referring to the fact that although the law contained some of the reforms included in the Butros election proposal such as campaign finance regulation and elections media and advertising regulation, parliamentarians also chose to forego other crucial reforms such as establishing an independent electoral commission, using an officially printed ballot, and lowering the voting age to 18 years.

Baroud was right to call the new law a cup half full - it broke down some barriers that seemed impossible to surpass a year ago.