H.E. Minister Nouhad Machnouk
Ministry of Interior and Municipalities
Speaker at the Open Ceremony

Nouhad Machnouk is the Lebanese minister of Interior and Municipalities and a Member of Parliament representing Beirut's second district. He is a member of the 'Future Bloc' coalition and serves on the Human Rights and Foreign Affairs parliamentary committee. He also serves on the ministerial committee charged with responding to the Syrian refugee crisis.

Machnouk started his career as a journalist working for the Lebanese weekly magazine Annahar. In 1983, he assumed his first political role as co-founder of Al Lika'a Al Islami, a political gathering of prominent politicians and civil society leaders. In 992, he was appointed senior political advisor to Prime Minister Rafic El Hariri. He served in this position till 1998, when he was forced into exile. He resumed his journalistic career in 2005 as a weekly columnist for Lebanese Daily Assafir, before running for parliament in 2009. In 2014, he was named Minister of Interior and Municipalities in Prime Minister Tamam Salam's national unity government.

As minister, he devised and implemented a comprehensive security strategy to gradually impose state sovereignty on all Lebanese territory. Through his framework to combat ISIS and other extremist organizations – which includes improving the professionalism of security apparatus, strengthening national unity, and promoting theological courage – he played a role in shaping the government's overall strategy to fight terrorism and protect Lebanon from the spillover effects of Syria and Iraq's conflicts.