Nawaf Salam, the head of the International Court of Justice, has become Lebanon’s prime minister after President Joseph Aoun appointed him with the backing of more than half of the lawmakers in parliament.
Monday’s development reflects the weakened position of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, which wanted 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 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 UN for many years and he has international experience,” she said.
“He is widely respected as a judge, lawyer and diplomat,” Khodr added.
She said: “Salam symbolises change. He was chosen by opposition MPs, 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 a decisive sway.
His election last week ended a two-year power vacuum and revived hopes of lifting war-battered Lebanon out of economic crisis.
With the prime minister named by the president, the eastern Mediterranean country has been run by a caretaker government for more than two years.
Aoun, a Maronite Christian, was holding consultations over the choice of prime minister with parliament’s 128 MPs on Monday.
He was obliged to pick Salam as he was the candidate with the greatest number of votes.
Salam had secured the backing of 78 of the MPs out of 128 by Monday afternoon, with nine endorsing Mikati who has served as prime minister in a caretaker capacity.
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.
