Army chief Joseph Aoun has been elected president of Lebanon after the post remained vacant from 2022.
Lebanon’s parliament elected army chief Joseph Aoun as head of state on Thursday, filling the vacant presidential seat with a general who enjoys US approval and shows the diminished influence of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group after a devastating war with Israel.
The outcome reflected changes in the balance of power in Lebanon and the wider Middle East, with Shiite Muslim Hezbollah badly beaten in last year’s war and its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad demolished in December.
It also signaled a resurgence of Saudi influence in a country where Riyadh’s role has long been overshadowed by Iran and Hezbollah.
The presidency, reserved for a Maronite Christian in Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system, has been vacant since the term of Michel Aoun (no relation) ended in October 2022, with deeply divided factions unable to agree on a candidate who could win enough votes in 128. – the seat of the parliament.
Aoun fell short of the 86 votes needed in the first round of voting, but passed the threshold with 99 votes in the second round, according to parliament speaker Nabih Berri, after he was backed by lawmakers from Hezbollah and its Shiite ally the Amal Movement.
Momentum behind Aoun emerged on Wednesday when Hezbollah’s long-preferred candidate, Suleiman Frangieh, backed down and endorsed the military chief, and French and Saudi envoys toured Beirut calling for his election in meetings with politicians, three Lebanese political sources said. .
A source close to the Saudi royal court said French, Saudi and American envoys told Berri, a close Hezbollah ally, that international financial aid – including from Saudi Arabia – was contingent on Aoun’s election.
“There is a very clear message from the international community that they are ready to support Lebanon, but it needs a president, a government,” Michel Mouawad, a Christian lawmaker opposed to Hezbollah who voted for Aoun, told Reuters before the vote.
“We received a message of support from the Saudis,” he added.
No head of state since 2022
The election of Joseph Aoun is the first step towards reviving government institutions in a country that has had neither a head of state nor a fully empowered cabinet since Michel Aoun left office.
Lebanon, whose economy is still reeling from a devastating financial collapse in 2019, is in dire need of international aid to rebuild after the war, which the World Bank estimates has cost the country $8.5 billion.
People in Lebanon are burying their dead and trying to rebuild their lives as a fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah endures, as CBC News hears divided opinions about the future of the weakened militant group.
Its system of government requires the new president to convene consultations with lawmakers to nominate a Sunni Muslim prime minister to form a new government, a process that can often drag on as factions shift over ministerial portfolios.
Aoun has been instrumental in maintaining a cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel brokered by Washington and Paris in November. The terms call for the Lebanese army to deploy in southern Lebanon while Israeli troops and Hezbollah withdraw.
Aoun, 60, has been commander of the U.S.-backed Lebanese army since 2017. While in office, U.S. aid continued to flow to the army, part of a longstanding U.S. policy aimed at supporting state institutions to counter Hezbollah’s influence.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said the new government will have to implement the reforms necessary for Lebanon’s economic recovery, stability, security and sovereignty, and added that France calls on all Lebanese political leaders and authorities to work towards these goals.
