Who is Joseph Aoun, the new president of Lebanon? | Politics News

The commander of the Lebanese army is Joseph Aoun new president of Lebanon.

The 61-year-old becomes Lebanon's 14th president, filling a presidential vacuum of more than two years left by his predecessor Michel Aoun, who is not related to the new president.

The appointment of Joseph Aoun overcomes a major impasse; Lebanon's parliament has met 12 times before to vote for a president, but failed to elect one.

Aoun's support in parliament came from a wide range of political figures, and he ended up winning 99 votes from the 128-seat parliament in the second round of voting.

But who is Joseph Aoun? And why did it take so long for the Lebanese parliament to agree that he was the right person to lead the country?

Military experience

Born in 1964 in Sin el-Fil, a northern suburb of Beirut, Aoun rose to prominence during his time as commander of Lebanon's army, a position he ascended to in 2017. and which, like the President of the Republic, must be occupied by a member of the sect of Aoun, Maronite Christianity.

Aoun's official Lebanese Army biography states that he enrolled at the military academy in 1983, during Lebanon's civil war.

He steadily rose through the ranks, undergoing various trainings in Lebanon and abroad, including with the US counterterrorism program. He was also awarded the Lebanon War Medal three times, along with several other medals and honors.

In August 2017, shortly after taking command of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), Aoun used his counter-terrorism training to launch an operation targeting ISIS fighters who had spent years in the mountainous terrain between Syria and Lebanon – especially in the outskirts of Christian villages Ras Baalbek and Qaa in the northeastern Bekaa Valley.

The success of the operation strengthened Aoun's position. In addition, Aoun was able to use his years at the top of the LAF to build close ties with various regional and international actors, including the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar—a network that was particularly useful in rallying support around Aoun for the presidency.

Economic and political crises

Aoun's tenure as commander of the Lebanese army coincided with a period of incredible hardship for the country.

The years-long economic crisis has left millions of Lebanese struggling, with many soldiers in the army having to take on second jobs to make ends meet.

The economic crisis is seen as emblematic of the broader crisis of governance in Lebanon. A sectarian political system has entrenched an aging political gerontocracy associated with corruption and political mismanagement.

The horror of Explosion in Beirut in August 2020, which killed more than 220 people, reinforced the feeling that the country's rulers had completely failed the Lebanese people.

And when President Michel Aoun vacated the presidency in October 2022, Lebanon's parliament failed to agree on a successor despite meeting repeatedly to vote. This left the Lebanese state effectively paralyzed, just when action was needed to address the country's economic challenges.

The institution Aoun was in charge of, the Lebanese army, was also widely seen as weaker than the Shiite group Hezbollah, another factor undermining the effectiveness of the Lebanese state.

To make matters worse for the country, Israel's war on Gaza quickly spilled over into Lebanon, as Hezbollah began an exchange of fire with Israel on October 8, 2023, which ultimately culminated in two months of devastating Israeli bombing and a ground invasion that killed more than 4,000 people and ended with a ceasefire agreement on November 27 last year.

An opportunity

But despite the death and destruction, the outcome of the war paved the way for a president to finally be elected, as international and domestic pressure mounted to find a solution and send a message that Lebanon would begin to rebuild.

Aoun, who has begun 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 killing more than 40 Lebanese soldiers during that period, and was also seen as an important figure in securing Lebanon's commitment to a cease-fire, which stipulated that Hezbollah must withdraw from south of the Litani River and be replaced by the Lebanese army to ensure that Israel withdraws behind the UN-defined border between Lebanon and Israel.

It should be noted that Israel welcomed Aoun's appointment.

But outside of external and internal support for Aoun, it is difficult to define him politically, perhaps one of the reasons for his success in being elected president.

Not much is known about his political views and he rarely gave interviews – although in 2021. he criticized politicians for Lebanon's financial crisis, saying soldiers were starving.

Aoun had not expressed a clear position on Hezbollah's weapons arsenal, but in his inauguration speech he promised to “reaffirm the state's right to monopolize the bearing of arms.” What steps he will take to enforce it remains to be seen, and it will be difficult to see Hezbollah acquiescing to any demand for disarmament.

The new president also promised to restore areas targeted by Israel, including the south and the Beirut suburb of Dahiya.

His emphasis on national unity comes at a rare moment of agreement; Aoun's appointment ends a severe period of parliamentary division.

But it will take much more to prove to the Lebanese people that the country has truly turned the corner and that its political leadership has the ability to actually make the lives of millions of Lebanese better, a role it has failed to fulfill for so many years.