Member of the Lebanese parliament Jean Obeid has just passed away due to COVID-19 complications, the state-run NNA reported on Monday.
This makes him the second lawmaker to pass away from the virus in the time-span of a week.
At the age of 81, Obeid was working as an MP for Tripoli. He began his career as a journalist, and went on later to serve as an MP in the early ’90s for the Chouf district and then Tripoli until 2005.
Back in the ’80s, Obeid was also an advisor to two presidents and worked as a minister three times in different Cabinets. He was the foreign minister in former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s government between 2003 and 2004, marking it as his last ministerial post.
In 2018, Obeid ran for parliamentary elections for the Maronite seat in Tripoli. The Tripoli MP was part of the Azm Movement’s bloc, headed by billionaire former-Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
After the death of the oldest member of Parliament Michel Murr on January 31st, Jean Obeid is the second MP to die from COVID-19 this year.
Currently, the number of MPs is down to 118 in the 128-member parliament.
