Joseph Aoun
Joseph Aoun was elected President of Lebanon in January 2025, ending a vacancy of more than two years. Born in 1964 in Sin el Fil to a Maronite Christian family from the south, he entered the military academy in 1983, in the middle of the civil war, and spent his entire career in the army. He commanded the ninth infantry brigade in the south, served in the operations directorate, and was appointed commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces in March 2017. His command was defined by two things. The first was the operation of August 2017 against Islamic State positions on the north-eastern border at Ras Baalbek and Jurud Arsal, which cleared the last jihadist enclave in Lebanon and was conducted separately from the parallel Hezbollah operation, which mattered politically. The second was survival. The army held together through the financial collapse from 2019 that destroyed the currency, reduced a soldier's monthly pay to something under fifty dollars, and produced desertions and hunger in the ranks. He secured direct foreign assistance — American, Qatari and French — to keep it functioning, and kept the army out of the political conflict during the 2019 protests and the Beirut port explosion of 2020. He is not related to the former president Michel Aoun. His election required a constitutional amendment, since serving senior officials are barred, and it followed the war between Israel and Hezbollah that weakened the bloc which had blocked every previous candidate. He is the fifth army commander to become president, which is close to a Lebanese convention. His stated priority is the state's monopoly on weapons, which means disarming Hezbollah, and it is the hardest thing any Lebanese president has attempted.
- Lived: 1964 CE – ?
- Nationality: Lebanese
- Roles: President of Lebanon (2025-present)
