Lebanon's army commander, General Aoun, has been elected president of Lebanon
On January 9, the Lebanese parliament elected army commander General Joseph Aoun as the country's new president.
CNN notes that the elected head of state is supported by the United States. He was appointed to the presidency after two rounds of voting.
Aoun has effectively stepped back from his military role after being declared Lebanese leader. He has already sworn in members of parliament as the new head of state.
According to the Al-Monitor portal, Aoun pledged in his speech to uphold Lebanon's unity and sovereignty, including asserting the state's exclusive authority over all weapons in the country.
The state has not had a president since Michel Aoun left the presidential palace at the end of his six-year term in October 2022. Till then, there have been 12 failed attempts to elect a head of state.
On October 4, 2024, Axios reported on the US intention to seek the election of a Lebanese president. Then it was specified that the United States sees the head of state as a candidate who should not have close ties with the Shiite movement "Hezbollah" in order to reduce its influence on the political system.
Earlier, on January 6, Reuters reported that the United States is redistributing part of the military aid to Lebanon from Egypt. It was specified that the administration of the current U.S. President Joe Biden will send $95 million in aid.
Prior to that, on December 25, 2024, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intends to maintain its presence in Lebanon for a longer period than the 60 days that was approved in the ceasefire agreement. Israeli military officials noted that the military will have to remain in Lebanon until the IDF fulfills its obligations under the terms of the ceasefire agreement. These include establishing full control over southern Lebanon.
On December 21, Izvestia was told by the UN peacekeeping mission that Israel had withdrawn its troops from only one town in the south of the country during the ceasefire with Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement. On November 28, Dmitry Gendelman, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Dmitry Gendelman, told Izvestia that Israel has not changed its position toward Hamas after the truce in Lebanon.
The escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah came after the events of September 17 and 18, when thousands of people, including members of the movement, were injured when pagers and other communication devices exploded in Lebanon. The country blamed Tel Aviv for what happened. Since then, Israel has continued to eliminate the leadership of the Shiite movement and strike Lebanese territory.
The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian radical movement Hamas subjected the territory of Israel to a massive rocket attack from the Gaza Strip. On the same day, Israel began retaliatory strikes.
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