Michel Aoun will need to repair relations with his political enemies

What the Arabic press says about Lebanon's new leader.

A worker hangs a billboard showing Michel Aoun with Arabic words that reads "For all Lebanon," in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon. Mohammed Zaatari / AP Photo

F or nearly 30 years of war and peace, Michel Aoun has done and said anything he can to rule Lebanon. He has sided with foreign dictators, laid waste to his Christian constituency’s heartland in fratricidal battles and forged alliances with former enemies.

Now the 81-year-old former general has had to see his ambitions realised as Lebanon’s parliament has made him president

Writing in the pan-Arab London-based daily paper Al Arab, the Lebanese columnist Mohammed Kawas talked about the prospects for Mr Aoun and the United States’ lack of clarity regarding the presidential issue.

“Such a stance can reveal a lot or nothing at all, depending on how it is interpreted,” Kawas said.

“US secretary of state John Kerry’s initial statement was seen as an attempt by America to undermine the presidency in Lebanon, but an official clarification issued by his department later rectified the American position.

“But regardless of America's agenda for Lebanon, observers in Washington feel that Iran’s choices in the region are leveraged by the concession of the world and of Lebanon’s political class to the Hizbollah nominee.

“While the US secretary of state confessed to the absence of dialogue between Washington and Tehran, Iran sees an opportunity in America's lack of stance to move forward in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon,” he noted.

As such, Kawas does not consider Mr Aoun’s imminent entry into the Baabda presidential palace as a Lebanese job, but rather as an old Iranian plot being finalised.

“Some observers say Washington’s concession to the election of Mr Aoun – by distancing itself from the issue – is not befitting the superpower.

“They believe the US should adopt a more decisive position. Others fear that Lebanon’s case might become a model to be followed in achieving several outcomes in the region, especially in Syria and Iraq, in favour of Iran and Russia.

“They think that Tehran would see in this bargain a victory over Saudi Arabia’s choices in Lebanon and read it as an approval to move forward with its agenda in the region,” the writer concluded.

Abdul Rahman Al Rashid noted in the London-based pan-Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat that many Lebanese are not satisfied with Mr Aoun becoming the president. They either do not like him as a person or refuse Hizbollah’s dominance in the decision.

Regardless of the anger and frustration over the move, Al Rashid pointed out that the question to be asked here is whether it could change the everyday reality of Lebanon and its relations with other countries.

He, however, asked: “Is there any need for objecting to the presidency, putting up a fight or maintaining the presidential void?”

According to the writer, Mr Aoun will need his opponents more than the other way around.

“He should be the one to fear his opponents. After all he used to inspire fear in them when he represented the opposition. He cannot find solutions or maintain civil peace. He spent four comfortable years on his own without trying to bridge the gap between him and the others.”

Al Rashid added that many questions would need to be answered about the current situation, the future of Lebanon and its conflicting poles in Damascus, Iran, the Arabian Gulf, France, Russia and others.

“Michel Aoun is now the president of Lebanon as per the rules of the Lebanese democratic game and, as such, all the Lebanese should acknowledge him regardless of their reservations or disagreements and should work with him on building a bridge of reconciliation,” he concluded.​

* Translated by Jennifer Attieh