Biden and Trump reportedly coordinated push for Aoun's election

The Biden administration and President-elect Trump's team closely coordinated to push for Gen. Joseph Aoun to be elected as the new president of Lebanon, a U.S. official and a source familiar with the issue told U.S. news portal Axios.

The election of Aoun, a U.S. ally, broke the political deadlock that left Lebanon without a president for more than two years.

Aoun's victory is a boost to the pro-Western camp in Lebanon and a blow to Hezbollah and other pro-Iranian groups in the region.

“After Israel assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the Shia militia group suffered a series of defeats, the Biden administration decided to take advantage of the situation and push Lebanese leaders to elect a new president,” Axios said.

That effort got a boost six weeks ago when Israel and Lebanon signed a ceasefire agreement. One day after the ceasefire took effect Speaker Nabih Berri announced presidential elections would take place on Jan. 9.

U.S. officials told Axios that during the past six weeks the Biden administration and Saudi Arabia led a joint effort to ensure the Jan. 9 vote ended with the election of a new president. France and Qatar also supported and assisted in that effort.

The efforts reached their height this week when President Biden's envoy Amos Hochstein, who brokered the ceasefire deal in Lebanon, traveled to the region, U.S. officials said.

“The U.S. didn't say it publicly, but in private Hochstein lobbied for Aoun. The Biden administration sees the commander of the Lebanese military as a professional who is pro-Western and doesn't support Hezbollah and has the trust of the majority of Lebanese,” two U.S. officials told Axios.

Before the trip, Hochstein and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Trump's national security adviser Rep. Mike Waltz and coordinated their positions, according to a U.S. official and a source familiar with the discussion.

The source said both Waltz and the Biden team agreed it was important Hezbollah couldn't stage a comeback through the political process of the presidential election.

Hochstein was also in touch with Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and briefed him on the developments around the Lebanese presidential elections, a U.S. official said.

When Hochstein traveled to Riyadh on Sunday and to Beirut a day later, he told his interlocutors that he spoke for the Biden administration but that the Trump transition team was in agreement with the administration's position on the Lebanese presidential election, a U.S. official said.

In Riyadh, Hochstein met with the Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his envoy Prince Yazid bin Farhan to coordinate on their strategy, a U.S. official said.

In Beirut, Hochstein met for hours on Monday with Berri and later with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, with Aoun joining at some point. But the most important meeting was on Monday night with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, one U.S. official said.

The U.S. official said Hochstein met with Geagea until after midnight to convince him to drop his objection to Aoun's candidacy and order the lawmakers from his party to vote for him.

On Tuesday morning, Hochstein met with several dozen Lebanese lawmakers for breakfast in Beirut. Some of them were still on the fence.

"Who gives you the right to decide who will be the president of Lebanon," one Lebanese lawmaker told Hochstein, according to a U.S. official.

Two U.S. officials said the U.S. envoy replied that he was not telling them how to vote and stressed they could do whatever they want.

"But it is my right to decide how much time the U.S. is going to spend on Lebanon and where it wants to spend its money," Hochstein told the lawmakers, according to two U.S. officials.

The U.S. envoy said it wasn't a threat but stressed that both the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration think electing a new president now would be a good for Lebanon.

A U.S. official said that on Tuesday, shortly before leaving Beirut, Hochstein called the Saudi envoy Prince Yazid and asked him to travel to Lebanon and continue pressing the Lebanese lawmakers. He did.

"The Saudis played a key role. It was essentially a joint effort by MBS and the Biden administration," a U.S. official said referring to the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Another key breakthrough came on Wednesday when Suleiman Franjieh, the candidate supported by Hezbollah, dropped out of the race and announced his support for Aoun.

On Thursday afternoon, the Lebanese parliament voted and elected Aoun. During the vote one of the lawmakers who opposed Aoun wrote on his ballot: "Joseph Amos Bin Farhan."

Under the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel, the Lebanese armed forces are supposed to play a key role in any post-war settlement and redeploy in southern Lebanon over a period of 60 days while the Israeli military gradually withdraws.

During his visit to Lebanon, Hochstein chaired a meeting of the ceasefire monitoring committee with Lebanese and Israeli military officers joining.

As the meeting was taking place, the Israeli military started pulling its forces out of the town of Naqoura where the monitoring committee convened and from the rest of the western sector of southern Lebanon.

"This was a key thing. The presidential election wouldn't have happened as it did without it. The fact that the IDF (Israeli army) withdrew gave huge credibility to the Lebanese army and to Aoun personally. The Lebanese army showed everybody it can deliver," a U.S. official told Axios.

In a statement on Thursday, Biden said Aoun "will provide critical leadership" as Lebanon and Israel implement the ceasefire and that Aoun has his confidence.

"I believe strongly he is the right leader for this time," the statement continued.

According to the ceasefire agreement, the Israeli military needs to finish its withdrawal from southern Lebanon by the end of January.

Israeli officials said in recent days that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Defense Israel Katz and the army leadership don't want to completely pull out the forces but leave them in three key positions in southern Lebanon.

Israeli officials say that while the Biden administration is strongly against that, they hope the Trump administration will agree.

A U.S. official said Aoun's victory would create more pressure on Israel from the U.S. and other Western and Arab countries to finish the withdrawal by the deadline.

"The Israelis will start receiving the message that they need to get with the program. No way they are going to stay in Lebanon," the U.S. official said.