BEIRUT (Reuters) – General Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese army commander who was elected president on Thursday, kept his military on the sidelines of a recent war between Israel and armed group Hezbollah, ordering it to prioritise civil peace even as troops were killed.
Aoun, a 60-year-old career soldier, became the fifth Lebanese army commander to be elected as president in Lebanon’s history, ending a more than two-year vacuum in the post.
Since taking over the army command in 2017, he steered the institution through a national financial crisis that demolished the currency and with it the value of his soldiers’ salaries, shaking an institution that has underpinned internal stability since the 1975-90 civil war.
He also kept it out of a more than year-long war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group that had long expressed reservations about Aoun’s candidacy. More than 40 Lebanese troops were killed in Israeli strikes over that period but the army did not clash with Israel directly.
Hezbollah has emerged bruised from the conflict, with Israeli strikes killing most of its top commanders and wreaking devastation on the group’s bastions.
Aoun’s media appearances are extremely rare and he has not stated a view on Hezbollah’s arsenal, widely considered to be more powerful than the Lebanese army’s.
Aoun has a key role in shoring up a 60-day ceasefire brokered by Washington and Paris in November. The terms require the Lebanese military to deploy into south Lebanon as Israeli troops and Hezbollah withdraw forces.
In meetings with lawmakers in the lead-up to Thursday’s election, U.S. and Gulf officials expressed approval of him as the new president, without expressly endorsing him, parliamentarians in attendance told Reuters.
In a rare interview with pro-Hezbollah Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar in 2017, Aoun said he would “limit political interference” in the army.
He did not speak about his candidacy for the presidency in any public forum and did not make the rounds to Lebanon’s divided political factions to shore up support, like other candidates typically do before an election.
RARE POLITICAL STATEMENTS
Aoun was born in Sin el-Fil near Beirut and enrolled in the army in 1983 during Lebanon’s civil war. His first assignment was as a platoon commander in the army rangers in 1985 and his training included two infantry officer courses in the United States.
Shortly after his appointment as commander, the army waged an offensive to clear Islamic State militants from an enclave at the Syrian border, drawing praise from the U.S. ambassador at the time who said the military had done an “excellent job”.
In becoming president, a post reserved for a Maronite Christian in Lebanon’s sectarian system, he will follow in the footsteps of other former army commanders who have assumed the post, including the last head of state Michel Aoun, who is no relation.
In an unusually political statement for an army commander, Aoun criticised ruling politicians over Lebanon’s financial collapse in 2021, saying soldiers were going hungry along with the rest of the population and asking politicians “what do you intend to do?”
The United States, which has funnelled more than $2.5 billion in support to the LAF since 2006, stepped in with additional aid, including helping salary support for soldiers.
Aoun described the support of friendly states including Qatar as “a strong support during this phase”.
On Aoun’s watch, U.S. aid has continued to flow to the army, part of a U.S. policy focused on supporting state institutions to curb the influence of Hezbollah, which Washington deems a terrorist group.
Aoun is married with two children.
(Writing by Tom Perry and Maya Gebeily, Editing by William Maclean)
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