Lebanon’s new president, a publicly respected general who was sworn into office on Thursday, ending two years of an executive vacuum in the country, has been invited to address an upcoming European leaders’ summit in Brussels, to present his vision and future plans.
Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides said after a flash visit to Beirut on Friday that he invited Joseph Aoun to one of the next European Council summits to meet all 27 heads of state.
Speaking after a meeting with Aoun at the presidential palace in Baabda, Christodoulides called on the international community to “substantially support” Lebanon and said that prior to visiting Beirut, he had spoken with French President Emmanuel Macron and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“We need to draw up a roadmap as soon as possible for the steps we would like to see in the country and provide the support of the European Union,” Christodoulides said.
“We need to have a strategic and comprehensive agreement between Lebanon and the EU as soon as possible, in order to support Lebanon,” he noted, saying there is agreement from the President of the Commission and the President of France.
His trip to Beirut followed a brief visit to Nicosia by Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog a day earlier, and the tenth trilateral summit in Cairo on Wednesday with Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Volatile Syria
Chief on the agenda during the talks between the Cypriot and Lebanese presidents was the volatile situation in neighbouring Syria, controlling the refugee flows from the area to Europe and in particular to Cyprus, the ongoing conflict in Gaza and the need to restore peace and stability in the region.
He said that on January 1, 2026, Cyprus will take over the Presidency of the EU and that “we need to do something special for Lebanon.”
“You can count on us, we are brothers,” Christodoulides told Lebanon’s new president.
Joseph Aoun, a 61-year-old Maronite Christian who hails from the country’s south, has been the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces since 2017 and is credited with preventing the outbreak of an all-out civil war on several occasions, despite the influence of factions by foreign states, such as Syria and Iran.
After the collapse of the Assad regime in Damascus, and an exhaustive war between Tehran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, Aoun pledged to reinstate the Lebanese army’s credibility, control its borders with Syria, revive the demolished economy and proceed with much-needed reforms.
Lebanon is already burdened with the biggest number of Syrian refugees, compared to its own population, with next to no economic aid from the EU and other states that have generously supported other countries in the region and failed to contain the migrant flows to Europe.
