BEIRUT (Reuters) – General Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese army chief who was elected president on Thursday, has kept his army out of the recent war between Israel and the Hezbollah armed group, ordering it to prioritize civilian peace even as troops have been killed.
Aoun, a 60-year-old career soldier, became the fifth Lebanese army chief to be elected president in Lebanon’s history, ending more than two years of vacuum in the post.
Since taking command of the military in 2017, he has steered the institution through a national financial crisis that destroyed the currency and with it the value of his soldiers’ pay, shaking an institution that had underpinned internal stability since the 1975-90 civil war.
It also kept him out of the more than year-long war between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group that has long expressed reservations about Aoun’s candidacy. More than 40 Lebanese soldiers were killed in Israeli attacks during that period, but the army did not directly clash with Israel.
Hezbollah emerged scarred from the conflict, with Israeli strikes killing most of its top commanders and destroying the group’s strongholds.
Aoun’s media appearances are extremely rare and he has not expressed his opinion on Hezbollah’s arsenal, which is generally considered more powerful than that of the Lebanese army.
Aoun has been instrumental in maintaining a 60-day ceasefire 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.
In meetings with lawmakers ahead of Thursday’s election, US and Gulf officials expressed approval of him as the new president, without explicitly endorsing him, parliamentarians present told Reuters.
In a rare interview with the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar in 2017, Aoun said he would “limit political interference” in the military.
He has not spoken about his candidacy for president in any public forum and has not toured Lebanon’s divided political factions to drum up support, as other candidates tend to do before elections.
RARE POLITICAL STATEMENTS
Aoun was born in Sin el-Fil near Beirut and enlisted in the army in 1983 during the Lebanese civil war. His first assignment was as a platoon leader in the Army Rangers in 1985, and his training included two infantry officer courses in the United States.
Shortly after his appointment as commander, the army launched an offensive to clear Islamic State militants from an enclave on the Syrian border, drawing praise from the then US ambassador who said the army had done an “excellent job”.
When he becomes president, a post reserved for Maronite Christians in Lebanon’s sectarian system, he will follow in the footsteps of other former military commanders who have assumed the post, including the last head of state, Michel Aoun, who is not related.
In an unusual political statement for a military commander, Aoun criticized ruling politicians for Lebanon’s financial collapse in 2021, saying soldiers are starving along with the rest of the population and asked politicians “what do you intend to do?”
The United States, which has funneled more than $2.5 billion in aid to the LAF since 2006, has stepped in with additional aid, including supporting pay for soldiers.
Aoun described the support of friendly states, including Qatar, as “strong support during this phase”.
As Aoun watched, US aid continued to flow to the military, part of a US policy aimed at supporting state institutions to counter the influence of Hezbollah, which Washington considers a terrorist group.
Aoun is married and has two children.
