Assem Qanso

Assem Qanso ( _ar. عاصم قانصوه, born 1937 in Baalbek) is a Lebanese politician. His religious affiliation is ٍShiite Islam. He's the leader of the Lebanese Baath party.

He joins the Lebanese Baath in 1953. During the Lebanese war, the Lebanese Baath was divided into two hostile groups: a pro-Iraqi group and a pro-Syrian group. Qanso is staunchly pro-Syrian. He's known for the brutality of his speeches. He publicly threatened Walid Jumblat during a parliamentary session, on November 6, 2000. This remark was widely considered to be a veiled assassination threat against Jumblat who was becoming closer to the Syrian opposition.

:"You have exceeded all limits", "The Israeli war is coming and uncovered and covered [Israeli] agents . . . will not be protected from the rifles of the resistance fighters by any red lines or by seeking refuge in embassies".

Qanso publicly supported the extension of the mandate of Émile Lahoud and strongly criticized the 1559 resolutionFact|date=February 2007. He attacked Jumblat on this issue in the following terms: "You will be crucified above the garbage dump of history as a symbol of your ungratefulness, of your back-stabbing" and warned Jumblat that "you are not out of reach of our militants" and called him a "foreign spy". After Hariri's assassination, he was opposed to the cedar revolution and was not re-elected to parliament in May 2005.

Assem Qanso holds an engineering degree from the University of Zagreb (mine and geology) and later got Higher education degree in Petroleum and Geology in Romania. He's not to be confused with Ali Qanso, head of the SSNP.