President Joseph Aoun is off to a strong start in Lebanon. He shepherded Karim Souaid, a professional banker with a staunch record of rejecting Hezbollah, through the cabinet to become the new governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon. The position may be technocratic, but after the presidency and commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, it is the most important slot to fill if Lebanon is going to confirm Hezbollah’s demise. That Aoun held steady as Prime Minister Nawaf Salam tried to insert a candidate linked to his family by marriage shows Aoun understands that he cannot squander this moment; it also casts serious doubt on Salam’s judgment. The appointment of General Rodolphe Haykal to succeed Aoun as military commander completes the trifecta.
The question now is how Aoun will interface with the United States. Lebanon has a mixed diplomatic record in Washington.
The question now is how Aoun will interface with the United States.
Lebanon has a mixed diplomatic record in Washington. While Lebanon was still under Syrian domination pre-2005, it often sent Lebanese ambassadors who represented Syria more than Lebanon. Farid Abboud, for example, served as Lebanon’s ambassador in Washington between 1999 and 2007.
While the Clinton administration approached Abboud at face value, President George W. Bush’s team understood quickly that his main job was to launder Syrian interests and run interference for Hezbollah. His presence was an insult to the United States, especially in the wake of September 11, 2001, and he largely became persona non grata.
As Lebanon settles down to business, it is crucial it interact smoothly with Washington and the White House. Hezbollah’s fall, after all, is the most momentous change in the Middle East’s strategic environment since the Abraham Accords but, as with the Abraham Accords, progress is fragile.
While Lebanon has a charge d’affaires in Washington, it needs an ambassador. Many Lebanese—diplomats, businessmen, think tank scholars—now come out of the woodwork to seek appointment to arguably Lebanon’s most prestigious diplomatic post.
To send a Hezbollah apologist or simply someone who demonstrated spinelessness when it counted would be to squander an important opportunity to win Congressional support and consolidate the victory of Lebanese nationalists.
Aoun must be very careful: For decades, many of these Lebanese cultivated quiet ties to Hezbollah or at least maneuvered to avoid offending the Iranian-backed group; they crafted their policies to normalize Hezbollah when they could in the cynical calculation that such ties would be the key to realizing personal ambition.
Aoun should ensure Lebanon’s new representative to Washington is a man or woman of impeccable ethics with a track-record of opposing Hezbollah when it not convenient to do so.
The worst thing he could do is to take the approach of his prime minister and nominate someone on dishonest grounds. To send a Hezbollah apologist or simply someone who demonstrated spinelessness when it counted would be to squander an important opportunity to win Congressional support and consolidate the victory of Lebanese nationalists who seek to rebuild and reconstruct rather than once again become proxies for neighboring states.
