Lebanon end two years presidential drought, elects Joseph Aoun as president

Joseph Aoun, an army chief has been elected by Lebanon Parliament as the country’s new president ending a long void in the country’s government administration.

Aoun secured 99 votes from the 128-seat parliament to win the presidency in a second round of voting on Thursday afternoon, breaking a deadlock that has left the country without a head of state since October 2022.

“A new phase in the history of Lebanon begins today,” 61-year-old Aoun told the chamber, as he arrived to take oath in Parliament.

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This came after efforts 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 stepped from his military role. He arrived in parliament to be sworn in as president dressed in civilian clothing.

In his acceptance speech, Aoun had focused on “building” the nation and its army while sending the message that nobody had been “defeated”

Lebanon has been without a president since the end of the tenure of former President Michel Aoun in October 22 – who is not related to Joseph Aoun – The former president was backed by Iran-supported Hezbollah. Negotiations over his successor were unsuccessful, reinvigorating tensions between the country’s pro-Western and pro-Iranian camps.

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

A US-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended a war between Hezbollah and Israel last November appears to have also expedited the long-awaited presidential election. Hezbollah was dealt heavy blows by Israel’s assault, which was shortly followed by the downfall of Iran-backed Syria.

Hezbollah and its main Shia ally Amal are widely believed to have cast their ballots for Aoun in the second round after withholding their votes in the first round.

Aouns’ election comes at a crucial moment as the country seeks aid for reconstruction.

Who is Joseph Aoun 

Born in 1964 in Sin el-Fil, a northern suburb of Beirut, Aoun rose to prominence when he became Lebanon’s army commander in 2017. This role, like the presidency, it has been held by a member of Aoun’s sect, Maronite Christianity.

Aoun’s official Lebanese army biography states that he enrolled in the military academy in 1983, during the Lebanese civil war.

He steadily rose through the ranks, undergoing various training in Lebanon and abroad, including with the US counterterrorism programme. He also was awarded Lebanon’s Medal of War three times, along with several other medals and honours.

In August 2017, shortly after taking charge of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), Aoun put his counterterrorism training to use by launching an operation targeting ISIL (ISIS) fighters who had spent years in the mountainous terrain between Syria and Lebanon.

The operation’s success boosted Aoun’s standing. And Aoun was also able to use his years at the top of the LAF to forge close connections with various regional and international actors, including the United States, Saudi Arabia and Qatar – a network that has been particularly useful in gathering support around Aoun for the presidency.

Aoun, who only began to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate in 2023, was the man to take advantage.

He kept the Lebanese army out of the war with Israel, despite the killing of more than 40 Lebanese troops during that period, and he has also been seen as an important figure in ensuring Lebanon’s commitment to the ceasefire, which stipulates that Hezbollah must pull back from south of the Litani River and be replaced by the Lebanese army, to ensure that Israel will pull back behind the UN-defined border between Lebanon and Israel.