Former British diplomat Craig Murray, who has been in Lebanon for some time, argued on his blog yesterday that the election of Joseph Aoun as President of Lebanon was a victory for the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia, and a defeat for Iran. That Aoun “is the United States and Israel’s man is not in doubt. Despite Hezbollah attempting to make the most of their having voted for Aoun in the final round, to rescue what credit they could from the inevitable, this is no doubt another defeat for them following the disastrous ceasefire agreement that led to the same-day start of the assault on their ally Assad,” Murray wrote. “There is one stark and undeniable truth. The United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia have gained massively in the geopolitics of the Middle East. Iran’s position has been very seriously weakened.”
Agreeing with Murray, though from the opposite standpoint, was Lina Khatib, of the British monarchy’s Chatham House think tank, who told AFP that Aoun’s election was “the first time since the end of the Lebanese civil war (in 1990) that a Lebanese President is elected without prior approval by Iran and by the ousted Syrian regime.”
