Élias Sarkis (; 20 July 1924 – 27 June 1985) was a Lebanese lawyer and politician who served as the 6th president of Lebanon from 1976 to 1982, during the first half of Lebanon's 15-year civil war.
Early life and education
Élias Sarkis was born on 20 July 1924 in Chebanieh, a mixed Christian-Druze mountain village in Baabda district, to a shopkeeping family.
Sarkis attended the Chebanieh School and Frères School in Beirut.
Career
After graduation, Sarkis worked as a lawyer for three years.
Presidency
Sarkis contested the presidential election of 1970 as Chehab's protégé and was expected to win but was defeated by Suleiman Frangieh by a single vote. He was a candidate of Damascus and preferred president of Hafez al-Assad.
The election was held in the Versailles-style Esseily Villa, a private residence in Southeastern Beirut, since The National Assembly building was not safe due to ongoing attacks and battle. Sixty-six members of the Assembly elected him president on 8 May 1976. On the other hand, twenty-nine members of the Assembly boycotted the session. Sarkis could appoint Salim Hoss as prime minister in December 1976.
When Sarkis effectively began to serve as the President, he could not forge a lasting accommodation between Christian and Muslim factions. Also, the growing independent power of the Palestinian guerrillas in Lebanon prompted two large-scale Israeli attacks, in 1978 and 1982. In November 1976, Sarkis wanted to include Druze za'im Kamal Jumblatt in the cabinet. However, Hafez al-Assad did not permit it due to Jumblatt's clear opposition to Syria's increasing influence in Lebanon.
On 5 March 1980, Sarkis developed his policy as part of his attempts to create national accord: unity, independence, parliamentarian democracy, rejecting the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel. In June 1980, Salim Hoss resigned in protest against his inability to create peace in Lebanon. After much difficulties, Sarkis was able to appoint Shafik Wazzan as new prime minister.
Just before the end of his term in 1982, Israel invaded southern Lebanon in the 1982 Lebanon War and had advanced to the outskirts of Beirut. He organized a peacekeeping force involving U.S., British, French and Italian troops in Beirut after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon to drive out the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1982. The members of the committee included the Amal movement’s leader, Nabih Berri, and the hardline Christian leader Bashir Gemayel. His body was returned to Lebanon.