Lebanon’s parliament voted Thursday to elect army commander Joseph Aoun as head of state, filling a more than two-year-long presidential vacuum. The vote came weeks after a tenuous ceasefire agreement halted a 14-month conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and at a time when Lebanon’s leaders are seeking

The Lebanese parliament elected armed forces commander Joseph Aoun as the country's new president on Thursday in a second round of voting. Aoun received 99 votes in a second vote from the 128-member parliament.

Lebanon lawmakers elected army commander Joseph Aoun as the country’s first president in more than two years, picking a U.S.-backed candidate in a sign of Iran’s waning influence in the region.