BEIRUT (AP) — Barring any surprises, a former Lebanese general and a strong ally of the militant Hezbollah group is poised to be elected Lebanon’s president next week, formally ending a two-year vacuum in the country’s top post and a political crisis that has paralyzed the troubled Mideast nation.
Michel Aoun, an 81-year-old veteran Christian leader, will likely be chosen by Parliament on Monday as part of a deal that’s expected to give not just a boost for Hezbollah but also to the Shiite group’s ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The strong-willed Maronite Catholic general notoriously led a “war of liberation” against the Syrian army in Lebanon in 1989-90, but reconciled with the Syrian leadership in 2005 after Syria pulled out of Lebanon. He has been a strong supporter of Hezbollah’s involvement on the side of Assad in the neighboring country’s civil war, now in its sixth year. – READ MORE
