Lebanon’s army chief elected president, showing regional shifts

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s parliament elected army chief Joseph Aoun head of state on Thursday, filling the vacant presidency with a general who enjoys US approval and showing the diminished sway of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group after its devastating war with Israel.

The outcome reflected shifts in the power balance in Lebanon and the wider Middle East, with Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah badly pummelled from last year’s war, and its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad toppled in December.

Read More: Israel strikes targets in Lebanon, repeatedly violates ceasefire

It also indicated a revival of Saudi influence in a country where Riyadh’s role was eclipsed by Iran and Hezbollah long ago.

The presidency, reserved for a Maronite Christian in Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system, has been vacant since Michel Aoun’s term ended in October 2022, with deeply divided factions unable to agree on a candidate able to win enough votes in the 128-seat parliament.

Aoun fell short of the 86 votes needed in a first round vote, but crossed the threshold with 99 votes in a second round, according to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, after lawmakers from Hezbollah and its Shi’ite ally the Amal Movement backed him.

Momentum built behind Aoun on Wednesday as Hezbollah’s long preferred candidate, Suleiman Frangieh, withdrew and declared support for the army commander, and as French and Saudi envoys shuttled around Beirut, urging his election in meetings with politicians, three Lebanese political sources said.

A source close to the Saudi royal court said French, Saudi, and US envoys had told Berri, a close Hezbollah ally, that international financial assistance – including from Saudi Arabia – hinged on Aoun’s election.

“There is a very clear message from the international community that they are ready to support Lebanon, but that needs a president, a government,” Michel Mouawad, a Christian lawmaker opposed to Hezbollah who voted for Aoun, told Reuters before the vote. “We did get a message from Saudi of support,” he added.

Aoun’s election is a first step towards reviving government institutions in a country which has had neither a head of state nor a fully empowered cabinet since Aoun left office.

Lebanon, its economy still reeling from a devastating financial collapse in 2019, is in dire need of international support to rebuild from the war, which the World Bank estimates cost the country $8.5 billion.

Lebanon’s system of government requires the new president to convene consultations with lawmakers to nominate a Sunni Muslim prime minister to form a new cabinet, a process that can often be protracted as factions barter over ministerial portfolios.

Aoun has a key role in shoring up a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel which was brokered by Washington and Paris in November. The terms require the Lebanese military to deploy into south Lebanon as Israeli troops and Hezbollah withdraw forces.

Aoun, 60, has been commander of the US-backed Lebanese army since 2017. On his watch, US aid continued to flow to the army, part of a long-standing US policy focused on supporting state institutions to curb Hezbollah’s influence.

Who is president-elect Joseph Aoun?

General Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese army commander who was elected president on Thursday, kept his military on the sidelines of a recent war between Israel and armed group Hezbollah, ordering it to prioritise civil peace even as troops were killed.

Aoun became the fifth Lebanese army commander to be elected as president in Lebanon’s history, ending a more than two-year vacuum in the post.

He steered the institution through a national financial crisis that demolished the currency and with it the value of his soldiers’ salaries, shaking an institution that has underpinned internal stability since the 1975-90 civil war.

He also kept it out of a more than year-long war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group that had long expressed reservations about Aoun’s candidacy. More than 40 Lebanese troops were killed in Israeli strikes over that period but the army did not clash with Israel directly.

Hezbollah has emerged bruised from the conflict, with Israeli strikes killing most of its top commanders and wreaking devastation on the group’s bastions.

Aoun’s media appearances are extremely rare and he has not stated a view on Hezbollah’s arsenal, widely considered to be more powerful than the Lebanese army’s.

Aoun has a key role in shoring up a 60-day ceasefire brokered by Washington and Paris in November. The terms require the Lebanese military to deploy into south Lebanon as Israeli troops and Hezbollah withdraw forces.

In meetings with lawmakers in the lead-up to Thursday’s election, US and Gulf officials expressed approval of him as the new president, without expressly endorsing him, parliamentarians in attendance told Reuters.

In a rare interview with pro-Hezbollah Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar in 2017, Aoun said he would “limit political interference” in the army.

He did not speak about his candidacy for the presidency in any public forum and did not make the rounds to Lebanon’s divided political factions to shore up support, like other candidates typically do before an election.

RARE POLITICAL STATEMENTS

Aoun was born in Sin el-Fil near Beirut and enrolled in the army in 1983 during Lebanon’s civil war. His first assignment was as a platoon commander 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 waged an offensive to clear Islamic State militants from an enclave at the Syrian border, drawing praise from the US ambassador at the time who said the military had done an “excellent job”.

In becoming president, a post reserved for a Maronite Christian in Lebanon’s sectarian system, he will follow in the footsteps of other former army commanders who have assumed the post, including the last head of state Michel Aoun, who is no relation.

In an unusually political statement for an army commander, Aoun criticised ruling politicians over Lebanon’s financial collapse in 2021, saying soldiers were going hungry along with the rest of the population and asking politicians “what do you intend to do?”

The United States, which has funnelled more than $2.5 billion in support to the LAF since 2006, stepped in with additional aid, including helping salary support for soldiers.

Aoun described the support of friendly states including Qatar as “a strong support during this phase”.

On Aoun’s watch, US aid has continued to flow to the army, part of a US policy focused on supporting state institutions to curb the influence of Hezbollah, which Washington deems a terrorist group.

Aoun is married with two children.