Aoun Honors Qabalan as Berri Takes Part in Funeral

President Michel Aoun has awarded the National Order of the Cedar of the Grand Cordon grade to the late Higher Islamic Shiite Council head Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan, who will be laid to rest on Tuesday.

In a statement, the Presidency said Aoun’s move comes in appreciation of Qabalan’s “national, religious, social and humanitarian achievements.”

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri later decorated Qabalan’s coffin with the award during the funeral at the headquarters of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council.

Mourners later carried the coffin to the Rawdat al-Shahidayn cemetery in Ghobeiry.

Lebanon had declared Tuesday as a day of national mourning over the Shiite leader’s death.

Qabalan passed away overnight Saturday after a battle with illness. He was 85.

Qabalan was born in 1936 in the southern town of Mays al-Jabal. He returned to Lebanon in 1963 after finishing his religious study in Iraq’s Najaf. He became the head of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council in 2017 after serving for a long time as its deputy chief.