From left to right: Former Acting Parliament Speaker Mohammad al-Ayesh (host of the dinner in honor of the Syrian President), President Quwatli, ex-Prime Minister Lutfi al-Haffar, ex-minister Jean Sihnawi. A former member in the National Bloc, Sihnawi had served as minister of finance under Khaled al-Azm in 1941, and then again as minister of econonomy in 1949. Briefly in the 1940s he became director of Syrian Arab Airways and in the 1950s, a member of the Syrian Higher Monetary Committee.