Beth: Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Wednesday appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Zeina Aker as Acting Foreign Minister, after accepting Minister Charbel Wahba’s request to be dismissed from his duties, in an attempt to contain a diplomatic crisis with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. And the abusive statements in a desperate defense of Wahba on behalf of the terrorist Hezbollah, to conclude offending the Gulf states by saying: “Some countries of the people of love, friendship and brotherhood have brought us (ISIS).

Wahba’s statements were met with denunciations in Lebanon from political forces and executive authorities. The Presidency of the Republic disavowed them, and the caretaker government’s presidency.

The minister’s statements also sparked a wave of rejection and condemnation among the various parties, amid a consensus on refusing to offend the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia, before Wahba submitted a request to exempt him from his responsibilities to both President Michel Aoun and Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab.

Who is Zina Aker?

She comes from an Orthodox Christian family, she obtained a BA in Marketing and Management from the Lebanese American University in 1987.

She is the first Minister of Defense in Lebanon, and she is also a deputy prime minister.

She is the wife of Jawad Adra, a Sunni, who was previously nominated for a ministerial position and whose name was circulated to head the government. He is also the general manager of the “International Information” company, one of the companies specialized in opinion polls in Lebanon.

It is considered the main assistant to Michel Aoun in the cabinet and his closest confidant, and plays the role that Minister Gebran Bassil used to play under the leadership of Aoun’s team.

Aker has been subjected to many criticisms because of the great role she plays, and she is influential in all government decisions. The president in charge of forming the government, Saad Hariri, accused her of presiding over the Council of Ministers in a hidden manner.

Zeina Aker has few media appearances, and she was not known in the Lebanese political community before she was nominated by Aoun and the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil, to assume a sensitive ministry such as the Ministry of Defense.

Zeina runs the company with her husband, and a publishing house. The company publishes the specialized magazine “Al-Shahriya”, and with him it has established the “Nabu” museum in the northern Al-Heri region.