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France's Macron Will Travel to Lebanon Very Soon

French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech to French ambassadors posted around the world, on January 6, 2025 at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (Photo by Aurelien Morissard / POOL / AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech to French ambassadors posted around the world, on January 6, 2025 at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (Photo by Aurelien Morissard / POOL / AFP)
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France's Macron Will Travel to Lebanon Very Soon

French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech to French ambassadors posted around the world, on January 6, 2025 at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (Photo by Aurelien Morissard / POOL / AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech to French ambassadors posted around the world, on January 6, 2025 at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (Photo by Aurelien Morissard / POOL / AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Lebanon very soon, the French presidency said on Thursday, after Macron spoke with Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese army chief who was elected president, to congratulate him.
The Elysee said in a statement that it would support Aoun's efforts to form a new government, underlining that it must be capable of carrying out reforms necessary for Lebanon's economic recovery and stability.
Lebanon’s parliament voted Thursday to elect 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 international assistance for reconstruction.

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Cyprus Leader Becomes First Foreign Dignitary to Visit Lebanon’s New President

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meets with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (L), at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, 10 January 2025. (EPA)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meets with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (L), at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, 10 January 2025. (EPA)
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Cyprus Leader Becomes First Foreign Dignitary to Visit Lebanon’s New President

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meets with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (L), at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, 10 January 2025. (EPA)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meets with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (L), at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, 10 January 2025. (EPA)

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has become the foreign head of state and first foreign dignitary to pay an official visit to Lebanon's new President Joseph Aoun.

Aoun, the former commander of the Lebanese army, was elected Thursday by the Lebanese parliament to fill a more than two-year vacuum in the presidency.

“I wanted to be the first to visit President Aoun and show, not in words but in actions that Cyprus stands by Lebanon and the Lebanese people,” Christodoulides told reporters afterward.

They discussed energy, security, trade and shipping, his office said in a written statement.

Cyprus and Lebanon have had close relations for decades. In recent years the two countries have been involved in intense discussions over border control, as many Syrian refugees living in Lebanon — and an increasing number of Lebanese since the country's major economic crisis began in 2019 — sought to reach Cyprus by sea in smuggler boats.

Cyprus is less than 200 kilometers (130 miles) from the Lebanese capital Beirut and they share maritime borders in waters where undersea natural gas deposits are believed to lie.