Michel Aoun: 'Old is Gold' in the Levant

After 29 months of political deadlock, Lebanon’s parliament elected 81-year old Michel Aoun, a former retired general and war hero, as the country’s new president in order to act as an honest broker in a power-sharing deal between the country’s two largest coalition parties.

The March 8th Alliance, from which Aoun hails, is aligned with Hezbollah and is backed by Iran, while the rival March 14th Alliance is supported by Saudi Arabia and is represented by Saad Hariri, the former Prime Minister who will once again return to his post as part of the deal.

The Lebanese power makers and their foreign backers seem to have agreed that “old is gold”, in that the tiny and politically fragile country can’t afford to radically shake up the system at such a critically vulnerable time and is thus opting for familiar faces instead of the faces of change.

For reaching the climax of his remarkable career and finally ascending to the top spot in overseeing a delicate power-sharing deal in one of the Mideast’s most divided and conflict-prone countries, Michel Aoun is our MAN IN THE NEWS this week.

To discuss the new Mideast leader in depth we were joined exclusively by Andrei Baklanov, deputy head of the Council of the Russian Diplomats Association, former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (studio guest).

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