Lebanon Chooses Iran And Hezbollah Ally Michel Aoun As President

Lebanon’s parliament has finally selected a president after a two-year political impasse. On Monday, Iranian backed politician and ally of militant group Hezbollah, General Michel Aoun was chosen by Lebanon’s parliament to lead the country. Saad Hariri is expected to be appointed prime minister. This is bad news for Saudi Arabia and opens up a new chapter for the country that was once described as the Venice of the Mediterranean before regional and religious conflicts tore it apart over the last decades. USA Today reports: Aoun, 81, is an ally of Hezbollah, the Shiite militia and political party backed by Iran that has helped Syrian President Bashar Assad survive a five-year civil war on Lebanon’s border. The vote for Aoun, by 83 of parliament’s 127 members, shows Iran-backed political factions shouldered past those aligned with Saudi Arabia, replacing Syria as Lebanon’s chief foreign power broker. Aoun’s “victory now is a victory for Hezbollah and that alliance, and certainly a kind of black eye for Saudi Arabia,” said Paul Salem, vice president for policy and research at the Middle East Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C. Saad Hariri, a pro-Western and Saudi-oriented politician, formally endorsed Aoun last week after failing to garner enough support [...]

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