BEIRUT (AP) — Five-time former Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Hoss, who presided over some of the most turbulent years of his country’s modern history, died Sunday at the age of 94, the current prime minister said.

Building supervisor Prime Minister Najib Mikati In a statement on his death, Hoss, who was also a former minister and member of parliament, was described as the “conscience of Lebanon.” He added that Hoss died “at the most difficult and sensitive time when Lebanon needs its conscience.”

Mikati was referring to fears that Lebanon could be drawn into an open war with Israel. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah began attacks on Israel a day after the war. the beginning of the war in Gazatriggered by the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7. Israel and Hezbollah Since then, there have been almost daily exchanges of gunfire, forcing tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.

Hoss “was an outstanding economist and a role model in terms of expertise, ethics and knowledge,” said Mikati. “He put the highest interest of the country and the interest of the citizens above all other considerations.”

Hoss was often described as a technocrat and widely respected as one of the few statesmen living in a country marked by political and sectarian divisions.

He served as Prime Minister for four terms during the country’s 15-year civil war, which lasted from 1975 to 1990. His last term was from 1998 to 2000.

At one point, he headed one of two competing governments. After President Amin Gemayel’s term ended in 1988 without a successor being elected, Lebanon was ruled by two governments: one under Michel Naim Aoun in Christian East Beirut and one under Hoss in Muslim West Beirut.

By convention, the Prime Minister of Lebanon is always a Sunni Muslim, the President a Maronite Christian and the Speaker of Parliament a Shiite Muslim.