Lebanon’s parliament voted Thursday to elect the country’s army commander, Joseph Aoun, as head of state, filling a more than two-year-long presidential vacuum.

Former President Michel Aoun received Prime Minister-designate Judge Nawaf Salam at his residence in Rabieh, where they discussed the current situation and the challenges facing Lebanon. President Aoun praised the speech delivered by Salam at the presidential palace following his appointment as Prime Minister,

Lebanon's last president, Michel Aoun, left office two years ago, and the position has remained vacant since. He bears no relation to Joseph Aoun. On Thursday, the country is set to hold elections to fill the top post, potentially ushering in a new era of leadership.

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

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s new president and former army commander Joseph Aoun has maintained a low profile. Those who know him say he is no-nonsense, kind and averse to affiliating himself with any party or even expressing a political opinion — a rarity for someone in Lebanon’s fractured, transactional political system.

The election of army commander Gen. Joseph Aoun garnered rare consensus among the Lebanese, backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia in the first presidential election for Lebanon following the fall of the Assad regime.

Lebanon's newly elected president, Joseph Aoun, said Thursday that "a new phase" has started for the war-ravaged country and pledged to rebuild the state, adopt a policy of "positive neutrality" and fight corruption.

reserved for a Maronite Christian in Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system, has been vacant since Michel Aoun's (no relation) term ended in October 2022, with deeply divided factions unable ...

Joseph Aoun, Lebanon's army chief who was elected president on Thursday, is a political neophyte whose position as head of one of the country's most respected institutions helped end a two-year deadlock.

Aoun, no relation to former President Michel Aoun, was widely seen as the preferred candidate of the United States and Saudi Arabia, whose assistance Lebanon will need as it seeks to rebuild. The session was the legislature’s 13th attempt to elect a ...

BEIRUT – Lebanon’s new president and former army ... the Free Patriotic Movement of former President Michel Aoun — no relation to the current president — opposed his candidacy.

no relation to former President Michel Aoun, was widely seen as the preferred candidate of the United States and Saudi Arabia, whose assistance Lebanon will need as it seeks to rebuild.