Lebanese Army commander Joseph Aoun is the new president of Lebanon.The 61-year-old becomes Lebanon’s 14th president, having filled a presidential vacuum of more than two years left by his predecessor, Michel Aoun – who is not related to the new president.
Joseph Aoun’s appointment overcomes a major impasse; Lebanon’s parliament had met on 12 prior occasions to vote for a president but failed to elect one.
Aoun’s support in parliament came from a wide spectrum of political figures, and he eventually won 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 came to prominence during his time as Lebanon’s army commander, a position he ascended to in 2017, and which, like the president of the republic, has to be occupied by a member of Aoun’s sect, Maronite Christianity. Advertisement
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 ( …