According to the American news site, he has… General Joseph Aoun Which is supported by the United States and France as a presidential candidate in Lebanon, as the Lebanese Armed Forces are expected to be a major player in any post-war settlement in Lebanon.
With murder Nasrallah With Hezbollah reaching its weakest levels in years, the Biden administration believes that there is now an opportunity to significantly reduce its influence over the Lebanese political system and elect a new president who is not an ally of the Shiite militias, two American officials said.
US officials say the White House wants to take advantage of the massive Israeli strike on Hezbollah’s leadership and infrastructure to push for the election of a new Lebanese president in the coming days.
For two years, Lebanon has not had a president, which has increased instability and exacerbated the political and economic crisis in the country.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other senior leaders and members of the Iran-linked Hezbollah group were killed in Israeli air strikes in recent weeks, weakening the influential Lebanese group.
Political deadlock
At the end of October 2022, the former president terminated Michel Aoun Who had close ties to Hezbollah, his state. Since then, the Lebanese Parliament has not reached a consensus on a new president.
The United States, France and several Arab countries have been trying for two years to mediate between the country’s various political parties to reach a compromise, but Hezbollah has undermined almost every initiative.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, “We have made clear for some time that we believe the Lebanese government needs to overcome the flaw in the system – one of the primary instigators of this flaw is Hezbollah’s veto over who will be the next president – and elect a president. This remains true.”
backstage
Axios quoted American officials as saying that the White House sees the current situation in Lebanon as an opportunity to break the impasse over the election of a Lebanese president and believes that this should be a top priority, even before pushing for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
In recent days, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati told President Biden’s advisor, Amos Hochstein, that he wants to move forward with the plan drawn up by the United States in June to reach a diplomatic solution in Lebanon.
Hockstein told Mikati that the proposal was “not on the table,” because conditions on the ground had changed in the past two weeks due to increasing fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, as American officials said.
Instead, he said Hochstein Mikati said that the priority should be to elect a new president.
In Washington, he met with the Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdullah Bu Habibon Thursday, with the State Department’s top diplomat for Middle Eastern affairs, Barbara Leaf. According to Lebanon’s official news agency, Lev told Bou Habib that there is a need to elect a new president as soon as possible due to the situation in the country.
He called My timerOn Thursday, to elect a new president as soon as possible who represents the majority of the Lebanese. He said, “The main point is to elect a president who does not ally with one group against another.”
American officials believe that a Lebanese president should be elected in the first place, then a diplomatic solution to the conflict on the Israeli-Lebanese border should be reached on the basis of UN Resolution 1701, which was adopted after the 2006 war in Lebanon but was not fully implemented, and then a new Lebanese prime minister should be appointed.
