The weakening of Hezbollah allowed Lebanon to fill the vacant presidential position

The weakening of Hezbollah during last year’s war with Israel allowed Lebanon’s long-stalemated parliament to reach a consensus on a president trusted by the international community.

Army Chief Joseph Aoun, elected Thursday after a vacancy of more than two years, signaled a correction in Lebanon’s foreign policy as the country works with international creditors to find a way out of a six-year deepening financial crisis.

A deadlock in parliament between the pro- and anti-Hezbollah blocs has stalled more than a dozen previous attempts to elect a president, leaving the country largely rudderless in efforts to secure emergency rescue aid.

But two months of full-fledged war with Israel last fall dealt the group a heavy blow, and its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an airstrike in September.

Hezbollah also lost a strategic ally last month when rebels overthrew longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad.

“Hezbollah’s political defeat follows its crushing military defeat,” said Hilal Khashan, a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut.

Lina Khatib of the British think tank Chatham House said that “for the first time since the end of the Lebanese civil war (in 1990), a Lebanese president is elected without the prior consent of Iran and the ousted Syrian regime.”

“Hezbollah’s acceptance of Aoun’s election underlines that he is no longer imposing a political agenda,” she told AFP.

“The significant change in the political status quo… is a direct result of larger geopolitical changes in the Middle East that are ending Iran’s influence in the region.”

The United States, France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt lobbied hard to elect Aoun to fill the vacant presidential position.