Move boosts Joseph Aoun's chances of securing presidency during parliamentary session scheduled for Jan. 9 - Anadolu Ajansı

Lebanon’s parliament voted Thursday to elect army commander Joseph Aoun as head of state, filling a more than two-year-long presidential vacuum. The vote came weeks after a tenuous ceasefire agreement halted a 14-month conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and at a time when Lebanon’s leaders are seeking

Though Lebanon’s presidency is mostly symbolic, it has a few important powers, like approving prime ministers and cabinets. In a country still haunted by the memory of civil war, symbolism is important too: how the head of state is chosen says much about the balance of power in Lebanon’s factious politics.

The Lebanese Parliament on Thursday elected the commander of the Lebanese armed forces Gen. Joseph Aoun as the country's next president. Why it matters: Lebanon hasn't had a president for more than two years while the country's leaders tried to reach consensus on a candidate,

Lebanon’s parliament has voted to elect the country’s army commander Joseph Aoun as head of state, filling a more than two-year-long presidential vacuum. The session was the legislature’s 13th attempt to elect a successor to former president Michel Aoun — no relation to the army commander — whose term ended in October 2022.

The Lebanese parliament elected armed forces commander Joseph Aoun as the country's new president on Thursday in a second round of voting. Aoun received 99 votes in a second vote from the 128-member parliament.

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

General Joseph Aoun was widely seen as the preferred candidate of the United States, which funds, trains, and arms the Lebanese military and helped broker a cease-fire between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah in November.