Joseph Aoun: US-backed army chief elected Lebanon’s president, ending years of stalemate

Beirut, Lebanon
CNN
—

Lebanon’s parliament has elected the US-backed army chief to be the country’s new president, ending years of political deadlock and a presidential vacuum.

Army chief Joseph Aoun was elected president after two rounds of voting. This came after a robust effort by Saudi Arabia and the United States to rally support for Aoun, who is close to Washington and Riyadh.

After he was declared president, Aoun effectively resigned as army chief. He arrived at Parliament to be sworn in dressed in civilian clothes.

In his acceptance speech, Aoun hailed the beginning of a “new era” in Lebanon and promised to extricate the country from its myriad economic and political crises. He also made a rare pledge to “monopolize weapons” under the state mandate, a clear allusion to the arsenal of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah is the best-armed militant group in the Middle East and, until a devastating war with Israel last fall, had influence across at least three countries.

The heavy blows Israel dealt during the conflict, combined with the fall of its ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December, severely weakened Hezbollah and revived a long-running domestic debate over the group’s disarmament.

CNN joins a UN peacekeeping mission near the border between Lebanon and Israel

The US-brokered ceasefire agreement, signed on November 27, also stipulates that Hezbollah withdraw from the border region with Israel, further undermining its military position. Israeli forces are also required to leave Lebanese territory by the end of January under the terms of the agreement.

The Lebanese army did not participate in the full-scale war with Israel, but is a key player in the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.

“The Lebanese state – I repeat the Lebanese state – will get rid of the Israeli occupation,” Aoun said in his speech. The new president also raised the specter of a Lebanese “defensive strategy” against Israel – officially classified as an enemy state – without Hezbollah. The armed group was long considered the de facto military force tasked with fighting Israel.

“My era will include the discussion of our defensive strategy to enable the Lebanese state to get rid of the Israeli occupation and to retaliate against its aggression,” Aoun said.

Lebanon had been without a president since the end of the term of former president Michel Aoun – who is not related to Joseph Aoun – in October 2022. The former president was backed by Iran-backed Hezbollah. Negotiations on his successor failed, rekindling tensions between the country’s pro-Western and pro-Iranian camps.

Before Thursday’s parliamentary sessions, there were 12 failed attempts to elect a president over the past two years.

Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc said it had cast its vote for Aoun during the second round of voting to promote “national cohesion” but withheld its votes during the first round to “send a message.”

“We wanted to send a message … that we are protectors of sovereignty,” Hezbollah bloc leader Mohammad Raad told reporters. Aoun won with 99 parliamentary votes out of 128 in the second round of elections.

As part of the small eastern Mediterranean country’s confessional power-sharing system, Lebanon’s president is typically a Maronite Christian.