Lebanon’s parliament on Monday elected octogenarian Michel Aoun, an ally of the militant Hezbollah group, as the country’s president, ending a two-year political impasse that crippled state institutions and deepened rifts among rival factions.

Aoun won support from 83 lawmakers in the 127-member chamber to become Lebanon’s 13th president, fulfilling a decades-old dream that has shaped his political career. He will serve a six-year term. Aoun’s supporters danced, cheered and hugged each other as they waved his Free Patriotic Movement party’s orange flag.

The Shiite Hezbollah’s championship of Aoun, a Maronite Christian, had encountered fierce resistance from a coalition of parties backed by Saudi Arabia. His election would be a victory for Hezbollah’s patron, Iran, and a reflection of the decline of Saudi influence in Lebanon, said Rosanna Bou Monsef, a political commentator for the An-Nahar daily.

“It shatters Saudi Arabia’s image due to Aoun’s ties to Iran and Syria,” Bou Monsef said. Rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran vie for influence across the region and have been on opposite ends of the sectarian conflicts that have roiled the Middle East since 2011. Lebanon has been without a president since Michel Suleiman’s term term ended in May 2014.Lebanon’s parliament on Monday elected octogenarian Michel Aoun, an ally of the militant Hezbollah group, as the country’s president, ending a two-year political impasse that crippled state institutions and deepened rifts among rival factions.

Aoun won support from 83 lawmakers in the 127-member chamber to become Lebanon’s 13th president, fulfilling a decades-old dream that has shaped his political career. He will serve a six-year term. Aoun’s supporters danced, cheered and hugged each other as they waved his Free Patriotic Movement party’s orange flag.

The Shiite Hezbollah’s championship of Aoun, a Maronite Christian, had encountered fierce resistance from a coalition of parties backed by Saudi Arabia. His election would be a victory for Hezbollah’s patron, Iran, and a reflection of the decline of Saudi influence in Lebanon, said Rosanna Bou Monsef, a political commentator for the An-Nahar daily.

“It shatters Saudi Arabia’s image due to Aoun’s ties to Iran and Syria,” Bou Monsef said. Rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran vie for influence across the region and have been on opposite ends of the sectarian conflicts that have roiled the Middle East since 2011. Lebanon has been without a president since Michel Suleiman’s term term ended in May 2014.

(Bloomberg)