BEIRUT - Coinciding with Trump’s return to the White House, Lebanon is awaiting the election of a president on January 9.

Washington is clearly seeking to bring its strategic ally, army commander Joseph Aoun, to the position.

Meanwhile, Hervé Magro, the French ambassador to Beirut, had met with Gebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement, who confirmed his support for “electing a candidate who enjoys internal consensus and is in line with international standards.”

Reports have been circulated about the Druze majority leader Walid Jumblatt’s persistent efforts to convince Nabih Berri, the Speaker of Parliament, to elect Aoun. After meeting with Emmanuel Macron, the French President, Walid Jumblatt informed Berri that the most prominent countries concerned with Lebanon (the US, France, Saudi Arabia and Qatar) are pressing for electing Aoun.

For its part, Saudi Arabia rejects any president who would allow Lebanon to “attack the (Persian) Gulf states,” as media reports confirm. As for Qatar, it has sent more than one official to Beirut to push for the election of Major General Elias al-Bissari.  During the recent meeting between Aoun and Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Saleh Al-Khulaifi, Minister of State at the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Qatari side focused only on “the financial and logistical needs of the army.” In connection with this, attention is focused on the position of the Sunni MPs who are preparing to hold a meeting entitled “Rejecting support for any president belonging to one party.”

Since assuming his position in March 2017, Aoun’s relations with the defense ministers have not been good. In June 2018, he struck a deal with the US under which he handed over Lebanese terrorists arrested in eastern Syria. His procedures ignored the simplest legal rules, as the General Security, the Public Prosecutor and the Government Commissioner at the Military Court were not informed of the matter.

Aoun’s transgressions continued as he committed to a program based solely on American armament programs while rejecting any other arms offer, not only from the Russians and Iranians but even from the French. When he was handed a number of drones, he was subject to non-sovereign conditions, including that they be under the supervision of a special American force stationed at Hamat Airport, which was transformed into a landing strip for American aircraft. A number of American advisors were also allowed to reside in the Ministry of Defense headquarters on a semi-permanent basis. 

After the outbreak of the October 2019 events, the army did not stand up to Geagea’s supporters who attacked the peaceful protesters in Tayouneh, leading to the murder of 7 citizens. 

Besides, Washington prepared files on a number of soldiers and officers who they claimed were affiliated with Hezbollah. It even went so far as to exclude a large number of them from the financial grant that was provided to the Lebanese army. The biggest scandal emerged when Lebanon’s Central Bank agreed to open a special account for the army command in US dollars, only to find out later that it had received tens of millions of dollars from the United States, Qatar, etc.

Aoun took over without obtaining the approval of the Council of Ministers, and even asked to silence those who dared to criticize him, as former US ambassador Dorothy Shea told the Minister of Defense: “These are funds placed at the exclusive disposal of the army commander, and he is free to dispose of them.”

There are many things that the article does not have space to address, but the vital questions that beg on the sponsors of democracy in the West and their boys: Which candidate do you nominate as president who violates national sovereignty? Who does not care about the principle of “separation of powers”? Who turned an official institution into an NGO that begs its funding from abroad after providing the donor with its personnel's data? How will Aoun, who acts as if he is above the law, lead an entire country?  

To what extent will he succeed in thwarting the US guardianship that holds all the joints of the army while its boys never stop talking about the “Iranian occupation”? 

Aoun and all those who work to implement the US policies all over the world must be aware that Washington is only concerned with preserving its own imperialist interests. It will sell you out as it sold out all its agents, so it is better for the Lebanese to be rational, especially since the situation does not tolerate any stubbornness under any pretext.