image source, ICJ
The President-elect of the Lebanese Republic, Joseph Aoun, assigned Judge Nawaf Salam to form the new Lebanese government after completing parliamentary consultations. Judge Nawaf Salam received 85 votes, ahead of his competitor, the current caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, who received only 9 votes, while 34 representatives abstained from choosing a candidate. To the government.
The name of Judge Nawaf Salam, who holds the position of President of the International Court of Justice, emerged as a candidate to form the new Lebanese government, after the Lebanese Parliament elected Joseph Aoun as President of the Lebanese Republic after more than two years of vacuum in the presidency.
As in the presidency of the republic, the current government has entered the caretaker phase since October 31, 2022, with the end of the term of former President Michel Aoun, which means that more than two years have also passed without the presence of a new government.
This is not the first time that Nawaf Salam’s name has been proposed to form the government in Lebanon, and it was first proposed in 2019, so what do we know about him?
What do we know about Nawaf Salam?
Salam was elected as President of the International Court of Justice in February 2024, the third Arab judge to hold the position.
Salam was born in Beirut in December 1953. He received a doctorate in political science from the Institute of Political Sciences in Paris and a master’s degree in law from Harvard University.
He began his professional career working in law, and as a professor of “Contemporary History” at the Sorbonne University in Paris, and held the position of Head of the Department of Political Science and Administration at the American University of Beirut from 2005 to 2007.
He began his political career in 2007, when he was Lebanon’s ambassador to the United Nations until 2017, when he joined the International Tribunal in 2018.
Nawaf Salam represented Lebanon as Vice-President of the sixty-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly and Acting President of the Assembly in July 2013. He also participated in representing Lebanon in the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 2016 and 2018.
Economy and politics.. Iran and Israel!
Nawaf’s name was put forward for the first time to be assigned to form the government after Saad Hariri’s resignation against the backdrop of the protests that broke out in Lebanon in conjunction with the economic crisis in 2019, but Hezbollah and the Amal Movement obstructed his progress in the nominations process, considering that he was the “United States candidate,” and this led to the selection of Hassan. Diab to head the government.
Salam’s name returned again after the resignation of the Diab government against the backdrop of the Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2019, but the consensus between most parliamentary blocs tipped the balance in favor of Mustafa Adeeb, who then received 90 votes, before he apologized for forming the government due to “the clash of his consultations to form the government.” “With a blocked wall,” he said.
In previous statements to Lebanese media, Salam believes that the existing economic model in Lebanon has “ended,” calling for taking responsibility for the losses incurred by Lebanon “before examining how to advance economically.”
Sallam considered that there is “more than one reform paper drawn up to resolve the situation in Lebanon, by an elite group of Lebanese financial and economic experts, who are unanimous in their agreement on the necessity of distributing losses fairly and developing a new vision for Lebanon’s economy.”
Politically, Salam calls for the existence of a “reform government” and a “government of independents,” stressing the need to “build a joint effort,” and considers that “the only path to democratic change is through elections.”
Salam will assume the presidency of the government at a time when Lebanon faces several challenges, most notably the implementation of the ceasefire agreement between Hezbollah and Israel in southern Lebanon.
In one of his statements about Iranian influence in Lebanon, Salam pointed out that “Iran is a very big player in Lebanon,” but he considered it “not the only player” in his country.
As for Israel, since he assumed the presidency of the International Court, the Israeli government has attacked Salam, accused him of “treason” and called on him to resign from his position, due to his “hostility to Israel through his statements and positions,” as Israeli newspapers describe it.
However, after obtaining the largest number of MPs’ votes and being assigned to head the government, Salam must form the Lebanese government and name its ministers for approval by the House of Representatives.
There is no specific period for forming the government, as the Lebanese Constitution does not specify a legal deadline within which the Prime Minister is obligated to name his ministerial formation.
The president of the country also does not have the right to withdraw the assignment from the prime minister if the latter fails to form it.
It is noteworthy that the three highest political positions in the country are divided between three main religious sects.
According to custom, the position of Prime Minister of Lebanon must be held by a person from the Sunni Muslim sect, while the position of Presidency of the House of Representatives is held by a Shiite Muslim, and the Presidency of the Republic is held by a Christian from the Maronite sect.
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