Beirut, Lebanon – The appointment of Nawaf Salam, the president of the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ), as prime minister of Lebanon has many Lebanese feeling optimistic.
His success in securing sufficient votes in parliament on Monday caps off a fast interval of political change after Joseph Aoun was elected president final week, filling a place that had been vacant since 2022.
Aoun designated Salam to kind a authorities on Monday, and he might function prime minister on the very least till Lebanon’s subsequent parliamentary elections in 2026.
His victory is seen as a boon for the pro-reform motion, having come after Salam’s failure to safe sufficient votes in 2022, shedding the premiership to the person he’s now changing, Najib Mikati.
The reform motion, which took to the streets in mass protests that started on October 17, 2019, sees Salam as a person who can converse for them. Whereas he’s a member of a distinguished Beiruti household, he has not held political workplace domestically and has as an alternative reached distinguished positions overseas.
“He represents the aspirations of the October 17 motion,” Dalal Mawad, a Lebanese journalist and writer, informed Al Jazeera. “It is a man who has a really clear political imaginative and prescient and beliefs.”
Salam made his priorities clear in his first speech as prime minister-designate on Tuesday.
“We have now wasted many alternatives to construct the state,” he stated. “Sufficient wasted alternatives.”
Expertise overseas
Born in Beirut in 1953, Salam began his profession as an instructional and lecturer at universities, together with the American College of Beirut (AUB), the Sorbonne in Paris and Harvard College in america.
He served from 2007 to 2017 as Lebanon’s ambassador to the United Nations, the place he would “craft overseas coverage when Lebanon had none”, stated Mawad, who interned for Salam throughout his UN tenure.
A lawyer and a choose, Salam joined the ICJ in 2018, and in 2024, he was made its president. He presided over South Africa’s ongoing case that accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and dominated that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal. He additionally labored on UN resolutions, together with 1701, which is the premise for the present ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.
Associates and former colleagues of Salam described him as humble, an mental and somebody intimately accustomed to the inside workings – and flaws – of the Lebanese political system.
Karim Emile Bitar, a political analyst who is aware of Salam, described the prime minister-designate as a staunch believer within the rights of the Palestinian individuals, Lebanon’s Arab id, Lebanese nationwide unity and “a brand new social contract on the premise of democratic citizenship fairly than confessionalism”.
Confessionalism is a reference to the nation’s political system, which divides positions of energy by non secular sect. Salam, as a Sunni Muslim, is eligible for the workplace of prime minister however not of president, which is reserved for Maronite Christians.
“He’s actually a person of integrity,” Hilal Khashan, a political scientist who labored with Salam at AUB, informed Al Jazeera. “He understands the Lebanese political system must be reformed, and for him, the problems of accountability and transparency and accountability imply an incredible deal.”
A number of individuals interviewed stated Salam’s authorities programme would possible give attention to reforming the political system, guaranteeing accountability for crimes in Lebanon – together with the August 4, 2020, Beirut port explosion and the banking disaster – and defending the independence of Lebanon’s judiciary.
“He’s at all times been in reform, change and progressive actions, and I hope he will likely be profitable in reworking all that right into a political platform,” Ziad Majed, a political scientist, informed Al Jazeera.
A change?
Salam could come from a household that features two former prime ministers, however he’s largely seen as a technocrat.
Whereas different technocrats have been appointed to Lebanese authorities positions up to now, specialists stated regional occasions – together with the ceasefire between the Shia militia Hezbollah and Israel, the weakening of Iran and the fall of Bashar al-Assad‘s regime in Syria – have modified the political realities in Lebanon.
Iran’s and al-Assad’s affect within the nation has waned, and help from Western and Gulf states, which had lengthy tempered their relations and help for Lebanon because of Hezbollah’s highly effective position within the nation, appears to be on the ascendancy.
The very ascension of Salam and Aoun to their new roles is seen as proof of the weakening of Hezbollah, which had wished figures thought to be extra supportive of the group to imagine these positions.
Salam and Aoun could select to reap the benefits of Hezbollah’s weak spot after the group misplaced most of its management within the battle in opposition to Israel, together with its longtime head Hassan Nasrallah.
In his speech on Tuesday, Salam stated his fingers have been “prolonged to everybody”, together with Hezbollah, after members of the group reacted negatively to the brand new prime minister’s nomination.
It’s unclear whether or not Hezbollah and its allies will enable Salam to make the reforms he feels are vital for Lebanon or will push again in opposition to choices they could really feel weaken Lebanon’s resolve in opposition to Israel or carry it right into a pro-West regional camp.
For now, Salam believes he is able to implement his desired nationwide agenda.
“He was very eager on having these circumstances as a result of he wouldn’t take this job if it was arrange for him to fail,” Mawad stated. “He is aware of Lebanon like nobody else.”
