Lebanese President Joseph Aoun's designation of Nawaf Salam, the head of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as the country's new prime minister appears to deal another blow to Iran's declining regional influence.
Lawmakers on January 13 nominated Salam for the post, favoring him over the incumbent, Najib Mikati, who was said to be the preferred candidate of Hezbollah, the political party and armed group backed by Iran and designated as terrorists by the United States.
Aoun himself was elected president by lawmakers on January 9, filling a role that had been vacant for over two years, not least because lawmakers from Hezbollah and its Shi'ite ally Amal Movement would refuse to attend sessions to prevent the parliament from reaching quorum.
The U.S.- and Saudi-backed former army chief was elected president in the second round of voting after Hezbollah lawmakers opted to vote for him, having withheld their ballots in the first round in an apparent attempt to show that the group still held some power.
However, Salam's designation as prime minister further reflects the weakening of Hezbollah -- and by extension the waning of Iran's influence.
"It means that Iran's dominance in the region has come to an end," Makram Rabah, a history lecturer at American University of Beirut, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda.
SEE ALSO: Iran In 'Critical Situation' After Punishing Year At Home And AbroadMohammad Raad, leader of the Hezbollah bloc in parliament, claimed on January 13 that opponents of the group were working to exclude it from power and sought to divide the country.
The Lebanese lawmaker said the group had "extended its hand" by helping Aoun become president but found the "hand was cut off" after meeting him following the parliament's nomination of Salam.
Raad warned any government that "opposes coexistence has no legitimacy whatsoever."
Rabah said Salam's designation as prime minister "does not pose a challenge for anyone," but if Iran and Hezbollah believe that his becoming Lebanon's premier is "an attempt to end them," that means the Islamic republic and its Lebanese ally "harbor ideas and policies that contravene the principles of governance and progress."
Once a powerful force in Lebanon, Hezbollah's recent war with Israel has left it politically and socially weak and militarily degraded.
Under Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing political system, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament a Shi'ite Muslim.
Salam, who comes from a historically political family, served as Lebanon's ambassador to the United Nations in 2007-17 before elected to serve on the ICJ, with his term beginning in 2018. In 2024, he became the first Lebanese judge to be elected as the head of The Hague-based court.