International Court of Justice president expresses willingness to lead upcoming Lebanese government

Shafaq News/ Lebanese and Arab media reported that Nawaf Salam, President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), has informed several Lebanese lawmakers of his readiness to assume the position of Lebanon's Prime Minister, if the parliamentary blocs adopt his nomination for the role.

Mandatory parliamentary consultations will begin on Monday at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, where parliamentary blocs will meet with the newly elected president Joesph Aoun and present their candidate for the premiership.

Several names are expected to emerge during the consultations, convened by Aoun, including:

• MP Fouad Makhzoumi, a Beirut-based legislator and businessman
• MP Ibrahim Mneimneh, an opposition lawmaker from Beirut and a member of the 17 October Movement-supported parliamentary list
• MP Ashraf Rifi, a former minister and opposition MP from Tripoli
• Current caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati

Lebanese political circles anticipate the emergence of additional candidates from various blocs and lawmakers during the consultations.

Joseph Aoun, the former army commander, was elected President of Lebanon last Thursday, following over two years of a presidential vacuum and amidst severe political and economic crises.

This new government will be the first during his presidency, in which he emphasized in his inaugural speech that the next prime minister should be "a partner, not an adversary."

Nawaf Salam, born in 1953, is a Lebanese judge, diplomat, and academic. He served as Lebanon's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations for ten years, representing the country at the UN Security Council.

In 2018, Salam was elected to the International Court of Justice and was appointed President of the court on February 6, 2024, for a three-year term, following the term of US Judge Joan Donoghue. Salam is the third Arab judge to hold this position since the court's founding in 1945, following Algerian judge Mohamed Bedjaoui (1994-1997) and Somali judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf (2018-2021).