Lebanon appoints Nawaf Salam, diplomat and jurist, prime minister

Lebanon’s fractured parliament named Nawaf Salam prime minister on Monday, handing the country’s political reins to the prominent diplomat and international jurist as Lebanon emerges from a devastating war and attempts to recover from a serious economic crisis.

On Monday, Salam received the backing of a majority of lawmakers in the country’s 128-seat Parliament, after which Lebanon’s newly elected President Joseph Aoun asked him to form a government. Mr. Salam currently serves as president of the International Court of Justice, the highest court of the United Nations, and previously served as Lebanon’s ambassador to the United Nations.

Salam’s selection was widely seen as a major political blow to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group and political party that has served as the real power in Lebanon for decades. For much of that time, almost no major political decisions could be made without Hezbollah’s backing.

But Monday’s vote offered a rebuke to that status quo, elevating Salam – whom Hezbollah opposed – and delivering a stunning defeat to the Hezbollah-backed candidate. For many, it underscored Lebanon’s new political reality: Since emerging from a 14-month war with Israel, Hezbollah no longer has an ironclad, unbreakable grip on the Lebanese state.

In just over two months, Israel assassinated the group’s top leaders. The war left billions of dollars in damage across the country. Hezbollah also lost its main ally in neighboring Syria, dictator Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown by rebels last month. And its patron, Iran, is now on the defensive after its network of anti-Israel militias has collapsed. Those developments have opened a new political chapter in Lebanon, analysts say.

“The whole political dynamic has changed,” said Sami Nader, director of the Institute of Political Science at Saint Joseph University in Beirut. “It’s a total collapse of the old modus operandi.”

The Lebanese state is made up of a multitude of factions and sects competing for power and influence. For years, it has been controlled by a weak and ineffective provisional government. Hezbollah was both part of that government and the dominant political and military force, effectively guiding almost all major decisions in the country.

In recent days, Lebanon’s shifting political sands have been laid bare in a flurry of political developments that have underscored how much political ground Hezbollah has lost.

Last week, Lebanon’s parliament elected Aoun as the country’s new president, overcoming more than two years of political deadlock that critics had blamed on Hezbollah. Then on Monday, Salam (whom Hezbollah had repeatedly prevented from becoming prime minister in recent years) won the support of 85 members of the country’s 128-seat parliament. The outgoing prime minister whom Hezbollah supported, Najib Mikati, received only nine votes. Thirty-five votes were cast blank.

After the vote, a senior Hezbollah lawmaker, Mohammad Raad, told reporters at a news conference that Hezbollah had “extended its hand” in supporting Aoun’s election, only to have its hand “cut off” on Monday. according to local media. information.

Analysts say the new government emerging in Lebanon also reflects the realignment of power dynamics across the Middle East. The era of Iran’s dominance over Lebanon appears to be over, they say, creating an opening for Gulf countries that had competed unsuccessfully with Iran in Lebanon for years.

Saudi Arabia and Western countries have thrown their support behind Salam and Aoun, and many inside Lebanon hope the new government they lead will bring an influx of funds from those countries as Lebanon grapples with a multibillion-dollar bill for the reconstruction since the war between Hezbollah and Israel.

“Arab countries agree, there is a possibility that Lebanon will be welcomed back into the Arab family,” Nader said. “It is an incredible change. “You can feel the weakening of Iran.”