[2] After starting his career as a journalist, El Machnouk was hired by Lebanese weekly magazine Annahar and wrote extensively on regional issues.

Upon the withdrawal of Syrian troops in 2005, he resumed his journalistic career as a weekly columnist for Lebanese daily Assafir, before running for parliament in 2009.

As minister, he devised and implemented a comprehensive security strategy to gradually impose state sovereignty on all the Lebanese territory.

This put an end to the rounds of sectarian infighting that had taken place in North Lebanon for a decade and helped dismantle the criminal networks that served as support infrastructures for terrorist groups operating in the northeast of the country.

At the same time, Machnouk was criticized as a video clip was widely shared online and on Lebanese television, that appeared to show him dancing at a bar on the Greek island of Mykonos as the crisis escalated in Beirut.