Lebanese Option Party

Lebanese Option Party (LOP) (Arabic: حزب الإنتماء اللبناني , in English Lebanese Option, French L'Option libanaise‎) is a Lebanese secular and an economically liberal party, which is also a predominantly Shia political movement established in 2007.[1] It is headed by Ahmad Kamel El-Assaad (Arabic: أحمد كامل الأسعد‎), the son of the former speaker of the Lebanese Parliament Kamel El-Assaad and the grandson of the former speaker of the Parliament Ahmad El-Assaad (Arabic: أحمد بك الأسعد‎).

Lebanese Option strongly protests the political hegemony of the two movements Hezbollah and Amal Movement on the Shi'ite community in Lebanon.[2] Its platform is more in line with the Lebanese majority March 14 Alliance and greatly opposed to mainstream Shi'ite movements allied with the March 8 Alliance, namely Hezbollah and Amal Movement. But the Lebanese Option is not an official part of the March 14 Alliance and keeps an independent secular status.

In early June 2013, a Lebanese Option activist, and head of the party's student wing Hashem Salman was shot dead[3][4] during a protest outside the Iranian Embassy in Beirut. The protest, organized by the LOP, criticized Hezbollah's involvement in the Syrian Civil War.[5] In mid-October 2013, its leader, Ahmad El-Assaad, called for Lebanon to cut ties with Bashar al-Assad's government and the expulsion of its ambassador.[6]