BEIRUT (Reuters) – General Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese army chief who was elected president on Thursday, kept his armed forces out of the recent war between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah, ordering it to prioritize civilian peace even as that the soldiers were killed.
Aoun, a 60-year-old career military officer, became the fifth Lebanese army chief to be elected president in Lebanon’s history, ending more than two years of vacuum in the post.
Since taking command of the army in 2017, he has led the organization through a national financial crisis that destroyed the currency and with it the value of its soldiers’ salaries, shaking an institution that had maintained internal stability since the 1975-90 civil war.
It also kept him out of the more than year-long war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group that has long expressed doubts about Aoun’s candidacy. During this period, more than 40 Lebanese troops were killed in Israeli strikes, but the army did not engage in direct clashes with Israel.
Hezbollah emerged from the conflict wounded, with Israeli strikes killing most of its top commanders and damaging the group’s strongholds.
Aoun’s media appearances are extremely rare and he has not expressed an opinion on Hezbollah’s arsenal, which is widely believed to be more powerful than that of the Lebanese army.
Aoun is playing a key role in consolidating the 60-day ceasefire brokered by Washington and Paris in November. Conditions call for Lebanese armed forces to deploy to southern Lebanon once Israeli troops and Hezbollah withdraw their forces.
In meetings with lawmakers ahead of Thursday’s election, U.S. and Gulf officials expressed approval of him as the new president but did not explicitly endorse him, lawmakers present told Reuters.
In a rare interview with the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar in 2017, Aoun said he would “limit political interference” in the army.
He has not spoken about his candidacy for the presidency in any public forum or reached out to Lebanon’s divided political factions to drum up support, as other candidates typically do before elections.
RARE POLITICAL STATEMENTS
Aoun was born in Sin el-Fil near Beirut and joined the army in 1983 during the Lebanese civil war. His first assignment was as an Army Ranger platoon leader in 1985, and his training included two infantry officer courses in the United States.
Shortly after his appointment as commander, the army launched an offensive to clear Islamic State militants from the enclave on the Syrian border, earning praise from the then-US ambassador, who said the military had done a “great job.”
As 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 held the post, including the last head of state, Michel Aoun, who is not related to him.
In an unusual statement for an army chief, Aoun criticized ruling politicians over Lebanon’s financial collapse in 2021, saying soldiers were starving along with the rest of the population, and asked politicians: “What do you intend to do?”
The United States, which has contributed more than $2.5 billion to support the LAF since 2006, has stepped in and provided additional aid, including help paying soldiers’ salaries.
Aoun described the support of friendly states, including Qatar, as “strong support at this stage.”
During Aoun’s tenure, American aid continued to flow into the military, part of a U.S. policy aimed at bolstering government institutions to curb the influence of Hezbollah, which Washington considers a terrorist group.
Aoun is married and has two children.