With the election of Lebanon's new president Joseph Aoun on Thursday (January 9), a two-year period marked by a political vacuum under a previous caretaker government has ended.

"Aoun was seen as the candidate that can bring stability after much instability in Lebanon," Kelly Petillo, a Middle East researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), told DW.

And yet, the election "was not easy" she said.

"In an initial round of voting, Aoun didn't manage to secure the 86 votes needed to pass a candidate as president," Petillo explained.

The political Hezbollah faction as well as its parliamentary ally, the Amal Movement, had abstained from voting, she said.

Lebanon's military wing of Hezbollah is considered a terrorist group by several countries, including the US and the European Union. In contrast, its political wing is represented in parliament and is heavily involved in social welfare issues.

"Before the second round of voting took place, Hezbollah and affiliated movements from the Lebanese Shia community were guaranteed that voting for Aoun was the only way to bring in much-needed regional and Western support into the country whose economy is in tatters," Petillo said.

She added that the Shia parties were also guaranteed enough representation in the new Lebanese........

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