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.

The election of army commander Gen. Joseph Aoun garnered rare consensus among the Lebanese, backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia in the first presidential election for Lebanon following the fall of the Assad regime.

Lebanese lawmakers on Thursday elected army chief Joseph Aoun as president in a second round of a parliamentary vote, ending more than two years of deadlock, in a much-needed step to help lift the war-battered country out of a deep financial crisis.