BEIRUT: Lebanon’s newly elected President Joseph Aoun has summoned Nawaf Salam, the head of the International Court of Justice, to designate him as the country’s prime minister after he won the backing of more than half of parliamentarians.
The announcement on Monday reflects the weakened position of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, which wanted caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to keep the job, following its devastating war with Israel and the toppling of the group’s ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria last month.
Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from the Lebanese capital Beirut, said Salam’s designation “symbolises a new era” in Lebanon’s politics.
“Salam is a newcomer in politics, but he was the ambassador to the United Nations for many years and he has international experience,” she said.
“He is widely respected as a judge, lawyer and diplomat.”
She added: “Salam symbolises change. He was chosen by opposition and independent MPs, who are pushing for a new political order as he does not belong to the political class that has been governing this country for decades and has been accused of mismanagement and corruption.”
The election last week of army commander General Aoun as head of state, a choice backed by the United States, also showed the shift in Lebanon’s sectarian political landscape, in which Hezbollah had long held decisive sway.
His election ended a two-year power vacuum and revived hopes of lifting war-battered Lebanon out of economic crisis.
The eastern Mediterranean country has been run by a caretaker government since November 2022.
Aoun, a Maronite Christian, held consultations over the choice of prime minister with parliament’s 128 MPs on Monday.
Salam had secured the backing of 78 of the MPs by Monday afternoon, with nine endorsing Mikati.
Under Lebanon’s power-sharing system, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the parliament speaker a Shia Muslim.
