His election was vetoed by Hezbollah[1] and its allies, who refused to attend parliament and threatened not to recognise any president who was not the product of a consensus agreement between Lebanese political forces.

After his backstage participation in the Taif conference in Saudi Arabia, which ended the destructive Lebanese civil war, he became ambassador to the United States of America, where he had high-level relationships with leading U.S. politicians.

In 2001 he joined the Qornet Shehwan Gathering, regrouping prominent Christian opposition figures under the patronage of Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir.

The same year, he founded along with about two hundreds and fifty Lebanese intellectuals (including Misbah Ahdab, Camille Ziadé, Nadim Salem, Antoine Haddad, Ziad Baroud, Wafic Zantout, Mona Fayad, Hareth Sleiman, Malek Mroueh, and Melhem Chaoul) the Democratic Renewal Movement.

He was a prominent figure of the anti-Syrian opposition movement that started to organise after the extension of the pro-Syrian president Emile Lahoud's term and which gained more political weight following the assassination of Rafiq Hariri on 14 February 2005.

Despite his defeat in the parliamentary elections in 2005, after four terms in office, he announced that he was prepared to run for president if the March 14 Alliance - with a majority in parliament - decided to back him.

In 2008 the parliamentary majority ultimately designated Lahoud as its presidential nominee [8] but the Hezbollah-led opposition refused to attend a legislative session to elect a new president, thus ensuring there was no quorum.

Testament to the political tension prevalent during those times, Hezbollah supporters eventually attacked March 14 majority-affiliated buildings and newspapers in Beirut, in a show of force reminiscent of the days of the Lebanese civil war.

This was due to a refusal by the government to rescind two controversial executive decrees that aimed to dismantle Hezbollah's private telecommunications system as well as sack the military general responsible for airport security.