Kamel Asaad

Kamel El (or Al) Assaad (1932 – 25 July 2010) was a Lebanese politician.

Coming from a large feudal family from southern Lebanon, he held the title of "Bakaweit" (title of nobility plural of "Beik" granted to a few wealthy families in Lebanon in the early eighteenth century). He replaced his father Ahmed al-Asaad in early 1960 as Deputy of Bint Jbeil, and then held the parliamentary seat of Hasbaya-Marjayoun from 1964 and 1992. His father, Ahmed al-Asaad, preceded his son as speaker of the Lebanese Parliament from June 1951 to May 1953.

He served as president of the Lebanese Parliament several times, May to October 1964, May to October 1968, with his final stint from 1970 to 1984. Assaad chaired the parliamentary sessions, which saw the election of presidents Elias Sarkis, his close friend Bachir Gemayel, and Amine Gemayel.

Kamel El Assaad left politics in 1984 after Syria's intervention in Lebanon's internal political policies related to the ratification of the Agreement of May 17, 1984, between Israel and Lebanon, and the period of political crisis which followed.

Kamel El Assaad was president of the Lebanese Social Democratic Party.

Assad later ran for public office but failed to get elected in the Lebanese elections in 1992, 1996 and 2000, in the face of pro-Syrian and pro-Iranian political groups, and called for a boycott of the elections in 2005.

Coming from a moderate Shiite family, Assaad's views politically strained relations with the more extreme pro-Syrian Amal and pro-Iranian Hezbollah factions which later appeared in the Lebanese government.

Al-Assaad's son, Ahmad al-Assaad, was a candidate for a seat in the Lebanese Parliament in the elections of 2009.

Kamel al-Assaad died July 25, 2010, at the age of 78.