by Gulfnews, Beirut: Brigadier General Joseph Aoun is expected to be appointed as
the new Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). He will succeed
General Jean Qahwaji. General Qahwaji was appointed military chief under the presidency of Michel Sulaiman in 2008. Aoun
(no relation to President Michel Aoun) was born in 1964 in Aychiye,
East of Sidon, a predominantly Maronite Village in South Lebanon. He
joined the military right out of college and reached his current rank
after he assumed command of the 9th Brigade, which served in South
Lebanon alongside United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) with
whose officers he is quite familiar with. Aoun has been slated to head the LAF since 2015, but Qahwaji’s term was extended twice.

In addition to this critical new appointment, the Cabinet is
apparently slated to designate Major General Emad Othman, who is
currently serving as a director general of the Internal Security Forces
(ISF), to become its Commander. He will be promoted to succeed Major General Ebrahim Basbous. Reliable
sources told Al Jumhuriyyah that Major-General Khalil Yahiya,
secretary-general of the Supreme Defence Council, will succeed
Major-General Mohammad Khayr, and that Major-General Tony Saliba will
replace Major General George Qara‘a as head of the State Security
Service.

Major-General Khalid Hammoud is slated to become head of
the ISF’s Intelligence Branch and Major-General Samir Sinan as deputy to
the State Security Service. Parallel to these appointments, Major
General Abbas Ebrahim, the director general of public security will
resign from the military, allowing him to stay in office until the
retirement age for civilians, which is 64 years old.

Both Qahwaji
and Basbous are slated to assume diplomatic posts. Qahwaji is likely to
be appointed as ambassador either to Washington, London or Paris, and
Basbous in Riyadh or Cairo. It was unclear whether the Council of
Ministers will make a change in the position of director general of the
Lebanese Customs, currently occupied by Brigadier General Chafic Merhi,
given various controversies associated with the post. The
president and the prime minister were apparently anxious to make all of
these appointments to avoid drawn out contentions among political
forces, as most rejected term extensions for any military or security
official. The sources did not give an exact date for the new appointments