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January 15, 2025 Special Dispatch No. 11780

Columnists In Gulf Press: The Election Of Lebanon's New President Is A Victory Over The Iranian Axis, Which Previously Controlled The Country

January 15, 2025
Iran, Lebanon | Special Dispatch No. 11780

On January 9, 2025, Joseph Aoun, commander-in-chief of the Lebanese Armed Forces, was elected president of Lebanon with a majority of 99 out of 128 parliamentary votes. Aoun won in the second round of voting, after Hizbullah shifted its support from Suleiman Frangieh, whom it had backed for two years, to Aoun. The election of Aoun ended the presidential vacuum that had prevailed in Lebanon since the end of president Michel Aoun's term in office on October 30, 2022, after which the rival sides failed to agree on a presidential candidate.

According to the Lebanese constitution, the president is "the head of state and the symbol of the nation's unity." Authorized to approve the Prime Minister and the government and to negotiate international agreements,[1] he wields significant influence, alongside the Prime Minister and the Speaker of Parliament. The prolonged presidential vacuum, alongside the absence of a permanent government and the reliance on a transitional government with limited powers, served Hizbullah and Iran and enabled them to impose their will on the country.

Many columnists in the Gulf press wrote that the election of Aoun – the candidate favored by the U.S., France, and Saudi Arabia – reflects Lebanon's liberation from the control of Iran, and is a result of the severe blow that Israel has delivered in Gaza and Lebanon to the resistance axis led by Iran and Hizbullah, which also led to the toppling of Bashar Al-Assad's regime in Syria after 12 years of civil war. These blows, they said, weakened Iran and Hizbullah and made it possible for Lebanon to end the presidential vacuum that had resulted from their actions.

The columnists emphasized that the election of President Aoun would also allow Lebanon to extricate itself from the political and economic crises caused by the Iranian control, and praised the French, Saudi and American involvement in the election of the president, which was made possible by the weakening of the Iranian axis. Hizbullah's ultimate support of Aoun, they added, indicates that it and its patron Iran recognize the decline in their status and influence.


President Joseph Aoun (Source: Presidency.gov.lb, accessed January 13, 2025)

It's A New Era: Lebanon Has Thrown Off The Shackles Of The Iranian And Syrian Influence

Columnists in the Saudi press described Aoun's election as a "victory" for Lebanon and its people and as evidence of the weakening of Iran's and Hizbullah's control over the country. Saudi journalist Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed wrote in the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al- Awsat.

"After Damascus, Beirut now celebrates a new era with the election of a president, a position that Hezbollah had obstructed, leaving the post vacant since October 2022. This new phase in Lebanon concludes fifty years of regional exploitation of this small country… [which] was forced to be the sole front with Israel after the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian fronts were closed. The situation is now returning to balance after Iran's influence has been eliminated and the Assad regime removed…

"Inside parliament, it is no longer possible or permissible to coerce MPs into voting against their will, as Hezbollah and the Assad regime once did. Regardless, Iran is now part of the past. While Hezbollah remains, efforts to dismantle much of its arsenal will continue under a ceasefire agreement…"[2]

Saudi journalist 'Abdallah bin Bjad Al-'Otaibi also described Aoun's election a victory, "because the country has begun to seriously return to itself and its people… following decades in which the Lebanese Hizbullah highjacked it and held it hostage to the resistance axis. For decades its decisions were in the hands of others… and that is how Lebanon, the Switzerland of the Middle East, became incapable of dealing with the garbage in its streets or controlling its political destiny… Today Lebanon has a historic opportunity… to regain [its status as] an independent and sovereign state that gives its people hope, unifies its ranks and sees its future merging with [that of] its strategic Arab depth."[3]

Senior Kuwaiti journalist Iqbal Al-Ahmad, formerly the chief editor of the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) and currently a columnist for the Kuwaiti Al-Qabas daily, congratulated Lebanon on Aoun's election, saying that it reflects the country's liberation from the Iranian influence that was like "an unhealthy placenta." She wrote: "Finally, the infant has been separated from the foreign and unhealthy placenta that fed it and controlled its development for long years, causing  it to be distorted in many ways… The election of Maj. Gen. Joseph Aoun as president has disconnected Lebanon from the Iranian placenta… Fear of this disconnection, and the belief that it would require great courage and daring, kept it from happening for many years. [As a result, Lebanon's] body grew weak, its strength was sapped and its muscles atrophied, leaving it vulnerable to all sorts of diseases…"[4]

The President Wouldn't Have Been Elected If Not For Israel's War On Hizbullah And Iran

The columnists also argued that this victory would not have been possible had it not been for the harsh blows sustained by the Iranian axis over the past year in the multi-front campaign it waged against Israel. Al-Sharq Al-Awsat editor Ghassan Charbel described this year as "the era of surprises" that began with the decision of two central figures in the resistance axis – Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar and Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah – to start a war with Israel. "The multi[-front] war changed the balance of power in the region," he wrote, and created the opportunity to finally elect a new president for Lebanon. He described Aoun as "a courageous man who cannot be intimidated and subjugated to the will of others and an honest man who cannot be bought with enticements…"[5]

Iraqi journalist Farouq Yusouf, who writes for the London-based Emirati daily Al-Arab, described Aoun's election as a near-miracle that occurred thanks to the harsh blow dealt by Israel to Hizbullah. He wrote: "Everywhere [else] in the world, the election of a president is considered an ordinary event. In some cases it elicits no commentary and some people don't even hear about it. But not in Lebanon, where it constitutes an extraordinary event akin to a miracle… The sad thing is that an ordinary event like the election of a president could not have occurred [in Lebanon] if Israel had not eliminated Hizbullah, which was the insurmountable obstacle that prevented this constitutional event.

"If Hizbullah's power had not been destroyed and the Iranian presence [in Lebanon] had not been eliminated, a new president would not have been elected and Lebanon would have continued to navigate the maze of Iranian conditions, amid the sighs of those opposed to [the Iranian influence]… In the course of 25 years of Iranian control by means of its proxy, Hizbullah, Lebanon  lost many of the traits that had allowed it to exist as a Middle Eastern country with Arab depth…"[6]

The Lebanese People View The Western And Arab Intervention As A Lifeline That Enabled The President's Election  

Noting that Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and France used the weakness of the resistance axis to promote the election of a Lebanese president, the columnists justified this intervention, claiming that the Lebanese people welcomed it and viewed it as a lifeline. Khalid Bin Hamad Al-Malik, editor of the government Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, wrote: "The Lebanese people can now breathe easy. Lebanon has won… Many factors contributed to the parliament's successful election of a president  -- mainly the American, French and Saudi assistance, which paved the way to this achievement, but also the toppling of the Assad regime in Syria, the end of Iran's role in Lebanon following Assad's fall, and the current situation of Hizbullah…"[7]

In an article in the Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily, Lebanese journalist Antoine Al-Douaihy wrote that there was "a strong and direct Western and Arab intervention, unprecedented in the history of independent Lebanon," and that "without this tremendous public pressure the election wouldn't have happened." He added that numerous figures in the Lebanese parliament had opposed the election of Aoun because he is perceived as a strong and opinionated figure, and they preferred a president who would serve their interests.

Al-Douaihy added that "contrary to national logic," which normally opposes external intervention, this time many in Lebanon perceived the intervention by the West and Arab countries as "a wondrous lifeline [to rescue them from] the tyranny of the ruling echelon" in the country. "This would not have been possible without the swift developments in the region," he said, "which greatly weakened the control of the [resistance] axis, especially in Syria and Lebanon…" However, alongside his optimism about Aoun's election, Al-Douaihy expressed concern that "the wreakers of havoc" would try to prevent the new president from implementing true reforms in order to retain their influence.[8]

Lebanese journalist Sam Menassa, likewise a columnist for Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, wrote that the pressure brought to bear on Lebanon by Arab countries and by the West to elect Aoun reflected "an Arab and international desire to restore this country to its [Arab] surroundings and to [its status as] a normal state governed by elected legal authorities that are not subordinate to armed organizations [operating] outside [the authority of] the state [i.e., Hizbullah]. This, he said, is necessary in order to ensure the region's future advancement toward peace, development, liberty and regional and international cooperation…"

Menassa rejected the criticism of this intervention voiced by Hizbullah supporters, saying that these critics are the ones who abused Lebanon's sovereignty and constitution after collaborating for 50 years with the Syrian and Iranian "patronage and occupation." He stressed that "the Arab and international pressure exerted today is [actually] the gateway to restoring [the constitution and the sovereignty]," and urged that similar pressure be applied in order to enable the election of a new prime minister and chief of staff, and so that "this constitutional achievement [of electing a president] will lead to a new phase disconnected from the Syrian and Iranian past and restore Lebanon's sovereignty, constitution and democratic mechanisms…" In conclusion he wrote that Aoun's election shows that Hizbullah and [its ally,] the [Shi'ite] Amal organization, recognize "the significance of the consequences of the changes in Gaza, Damascus and Beirut and the significance of the decline in their role as Tehran's allies in the east." Menassa called on Hizbullah "to examine the reasons that led to its defeat and to the distancing of Lebanon from its foreign and Arab friends…"[9]

 

[1] Presidency.gov.lb, accessed January 15, 2025.

[2] English.aawsat.com, January 13, 2025.

[3] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), January 12, 2025.

[4] Al-Qabas (Kuwait), January 11, 2025.

[5] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), January 13, 2025.

[6] Al-Arab (London), January 11, 2025.

[7] Al-Jazirah (Saudi Arabia), January 10, 2025.

[8] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), January 12, 2025.

[9] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), January 13, 2025.

 

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