Lebanon’s parliament has elected army chief Joseph Aoun as President – finally giving the country a head of state after more than two years. Aoun, who had support from both the US and Saudi Arabia, received 99 of 128 votes after two rounds in a special parliamentary session.

General Joseph Aoun secured 99 votes from the 128-seat parliament, after winning an endorsement from the Hezbollah-backed candidate. The career soldier is the fifth army commander to be elected president in Lebanon’s history.

As the country endured economic crisis and a devastating war, lawmakers failed 12 times to pick a head of state. They have now settled on Joseph Aoun, the leader of the military.

The outcome showed the diminished sway of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group after its devastating war with Israel.

A devastating economic crisis, a political power vacuum, massive corruption and most recently the war between Hezbollah and Israel: For a long time, things were not looking good for Lebanon. But, after two years without a president,

Israel has warned on Sunday that its ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah could collapse if the Iran-backed group does not withdraw beyond the Litani River, one of the key stipulations of the truce.

Iran's embassy in Beirut welcomed on Thursday the election of Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, expressing hopes for close cooperation between the two countries.

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Lebanon elected army commander Joseph Aoun as the country’s first president in more than two years, picking a US-backed candidate in a sign of Iran’s waning influence in the region.

The Lebanese parliament elected armed forces commander Joseph Aoun as the country's new president on Thursday in a second round of voting. Aoun received 99 votes in a second vote from the 128-member parliament.

Lebanon's parliament chose the head of the country's armed forces, Joseph Aoun, to be its next president, a post that's been vacant since October 2022.