BEIRUT: The weakening of Hezbollah in last year’s war with Israel allowed Lebanon’s long-impasse parliament to reach consensus around a president who enjoys the trust of the international community.
Army chief Joseph Aoun, who was elected Thursday ending a mandate of more than two years, signaled a readjustment of Lebanon’s foreign policy as the country works with its international creditors to emerge from six years of worsening financial crisis.
Deadlock in parliament between the pro- and anti-Hezbollah blocs had blocked a dozen previous attempts to elect a president, leaving the country largely directionless in its efforts to secure an emergency bailout.
But two months of all-out war with Israel last fall dealt serious blows to the group, with its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah killed in an airstrike in September.
Hezbollah also lost a strategic ally last month when rebels toppled longtime Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
“Hezbollah’s political defeat follows its devastating military defeat,” said Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut.
Lina Khatib of the British think tank Chatham House said it was “the first time since the end of the Lebanese civil war (in 1990) that a Lebanese president has been elected without prior approval from Iran and of the fallen Syrian regime.
“Hezbollah’s acceptance of Aoun’s election shows that it no longer dictates the political agenda,” she told AFP.
“The significant change in the political status quo… is a direct result of larger geopolitical shifts in the Middle East, in which Iran’s influence in the region is ending. »
The United States, France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have all pushed for Aoun’s election to fill the presidential vacancy.
