Joseph Aoun

Biography

Joseph Aoun was born in 1964 into a Maronite Christian family in Sin el Fil, a suburb of Beirut, and finished secondary school at the Collège Mont La Salle. He joined the Lebanese army in 1983, during the civil war, and studied at the Lebanese Army Military Academy; he later also took a degree in political science and international affairs at the Lebanese American University, completed in 2007. He trained abroad, notably in the United States and Syria, including counter-terrorism courses.

As a lieutenant in the army's Commando Regiment in 1990, he took over leadership within his unit after its commander was killed during the fighting between Michel Aoun's forces and the Lebanese Forces militia. He became commander of the 9th Infantry Brigade on the Israeli border in 2015, and in March 2017 he was appointed commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, succeeding Jean Kahwaji.

Within months he directed an offensive against Islamic State and al-Nusra fighters on the eastern border in the Ras Baalbek and al-Qaa area, which raised his public standing. Parliament twice extended his term as army chief, and he led the army through the 2024 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

After more than two years in which parliament failed to choose a successor to President Michel Aoun, Joseph Aoun was elected president on 9 January 2025 with 99 of 128 votes, despite objections that the constitution bars a serving army commander. As president he named Nawaf Salam prime minister and pressed for a state monopoly on arms and the disarmament of Hezbollah.