Lebanon Names Nawaf Salam, a Diplomat and Jurist, as Prime Minister

Lebanon’s fractured Parliament named Nawaf Salam as prime minister on Monday, handing the country’s political reigns to the prominent diplomat and international jurist as Lebanon emerges from a devastating war and attempts to recover from a dire economic meltdown.

Mr. Salam was endorsed by a majority of lawmakers in the country’s 128-seat Parliament on Monday, after which Lebanon’s newly elected president, Joseph Aoun, asked him to form a government. Mr. Salam is currently serving as the head of the International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ top court, and previously served as Lebanon’s ambassador to the United Nations.

The selection of Mr. Salam was widely seen as a major political blow to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group and political party that has served as the real power in Lebanon for decades. For much of that time, almost no major political decision could be made without Hezbollah’s backing.

But the vote on Monday offered a rebuke to that status quo, elevating Mr. Salam — whom Hezbollah opposed — and delivering a stunning defeat to the Hezbollah-backed candidate. For many, it underscored Lebanon’s new political reality: Since emerging from a 14-month war with Israel, Hezbollah no longer has an iron, unshakable grip on Lebanon’s state.

In just over two months, Israel assassinated the group’s top leaders. The war left billions of dollars in damages across the country. Hezbollah also lost its main ally in neighboring Syria, the dictator Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled by rebels last month. And its patron, Iran, is now on its back foot after its web of anti-Israel militias has unraveled. Those developments have opened a new political chapter in Lebanon, analysts say.

“The whole political dynamic has changed,” said Sami Nader, the director of the Political Sciences Institute at Saint Joseph University of Beirut. “It’s a total collapse of the old modus operandi.”