Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar welcomed on Thursday the election of Lebanese army chief Joseph Aoun as Lebanon's president, expressing hope that it would help achieve stability.

"I hope that this choice will contribute towards stability, a better future for Lebanon and its people and to good neighborly relations," Saar, whose country was at war with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah until late last year, said on X.

The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, congratulated Thursday Joseph Aoun on his election as President of the Republic of Lebanon. The Special Coordinator welcomed the election of a president as "a long-awaited first step towards overcoming Lebanon’s political and institutional vacuum and providing the Lebanese people with the functioning state institutions they deserve."

"A prime minister must be designated and a government formed without delay. The tasks ahead of the Lebanese State are too monumental to waste any more time," Hennis-Plasschaert stressed. "Now is the moment for each and every decision-maker to put the interest of Lebanon above all personal or political considerations."

Lebanese Army chief Joseph Aoun, the frontrunner in Thursday's vote for president, is a political neophyte but is expected to benefit from his position as head of one of the country's most respected institutions.

Widely seen as the preferred pick of army backer the United States, as well as regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, he is perceived as being best placed to maintain a fragile ceasefire and pull the country out of financial collapse.

Army Commander General Joseph Aoun was elected as the new president of Lebanon Thursday with 99 votes, which ended more than two years of presidential vacuum.

Thirteen MPs voted for “sovereignty and the constitution”, nine cast blank ballots, two voted for the lawyer Chebli Mallat as five ballots were considered spoiled.

Parliament convened Thursday in a session that could see army chief Joseph Aoun elected as president following a vacancy of more than two years.

Before starting to vote, MPs made fiery statements with some of them engaging in verbal clashes over foreign interference in the elections and the unconstitutionality of electing Aoun.

Hezbollah and the Amal Movement will vote for Army Commander General Joseph Aoun in Thursday’s presidential election session, granting him the votes needed to become the country’s new president, TV networks said.

U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon patrol through rocky hills and olive groves near the border with Israel, ahead of a deadline for a truce in the war with Hezbollah that some residents fear will not hold.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has voiced hope for lasting peace in Lebanon after the United States reported an Israeli pullout.

Lebanon's lawmakers on Thursday began a session that could see army chief Joseph Aoun elected as president following a vacancy of more than two years, an AFP reporter said.

While 12 previous attempts have failed to choose a successor to former President Michel Aoun, whose term ended in October 2022, there are indications that Thursday's vote may produce a head of state.

The Development and Liberation bloc of Speaker Nabih Berri has become inclined to vote for Army chief Joseph Aoun in Thursday’s presidential election session, media reports said Wednesday afternoon.