Lebanese president stresses “exclusive right” of army to bear arms

The new Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, elected on January 9th, told parliament that he will ensure that the state has the “exclusive right to carry arms”, gathering loud applause, whilst Hezbollah lawmakers sat still, The Arab Weekly reported on January 10th.
Aoun expressed his idea that the Lebanese army will defend the country, not Hezbollah. He said to parliament, “I pledge to call for discussing a comprehensive defence strategy… on the diplomatic, economic and military levels that will enable the Lebanese state, I repeat, the Lebanese state, to remove the Israeli occupation and deter its aggression.”
Aoun’s vision presented to parliament reflects the shift in Lebanese and regional politics following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the declining influence of Iran-backed Hezbollah.
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“A new phase in the history of Lebanon begins today,” Aoun told the chamber after he was sworn in.
“There is no doubt the election of Joseph Aoun is a new era in Lebanon,” said Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr.
In the first round of voting for president, lawmakers from the Hezbollah bloc cast blank ballots, preventing Aoun from attaining the required two-thirds majority to be elected outright. In that first round of voting, Aoun fell short of the required 86 votes.
Following the first round of voting, representatives from the Hezbollah bloc met with Joseph Aoun.
In the second round of voting, Aoun secured 99 votes from the 128-seat parliament to win the presidency, Al Jazeera reported.
This comes after lawmakers from Hezbollah and its Shia ally, the Amal Movement, backed him. Mohammed Raad, a Hezbollah lawmaker, said that by delaying their vote for Aoun, the group had “sent a message that we are the guardians of national consensus.”
Hezbollah and its allies had often been accused of sabotaging votes for the president prior to the session of January 9th.
Now the newly elected president of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun confronts the task of overseeing a ceasefire in southern Lebanon.
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Joseph Aoun’s new presidency indicates the shift in power balance in Lebanon and the wider Middle Eastern region, following the weakening of Hezbollah during the Lebanon-Israel war and the toppling of its Syrian ally, Bashar al-Assad.
The Arab Weekly, Al Jazeera