Who is Nawaf Salam? ICJ president turned Lebanon's new prime minister

Lebanese President-elect Joseph Aoun appointed veteran diplomat Nawaf Salam as the new prime minister of Lebanon on Monday (Jan 13) amid the ongoing economic crisis in the war-torn country.

Salam was picked after a majority of Lebanese lawmakers endorsed him and he received the necessary votes in parliament.

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He will be tasked with forming a new government, which will potentially face significant challenges amid the ongoing West Asia crisis.

Who is Nawaf Salam?

Nawaf Salam, a 53-year-old veteran diplomat, was born in Beirut. He is currently serving as President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN's top court that recently ruled that Israel was plausibly committing genocide in Gaza.

After being appointed as the ICJ president, Salam was called "anti-Israel" due to his previous criticisms of Israel's illegal and brutal occupation of the Palestinian territories.

He earned his degree in Social Sciences from the School of Graduate Studies in Paris in 1974, followed by a doctorate in history from the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1979.

Later, he did his Masters in Law from Harvard Law School in 1991. He is married to Sahar Baassiri, who is a journalist and Lebanon's ambassador to UNESCO.

Salam's father, Abdullah Salam was one of the founders of the Lebanese national airline, Middle East Airlines.

Moreover, his uncle Saeb Salam was the prime minister of Lebanon four times between 1952 and 1973.

Salam was also the Representative of Lebanon to the UN Economic and Social Council in 2016 and 2018.

In the country, he is popular for his opposition to Hezbollah as an independent, reformist, who insists on restricting the right to use weapons to the national military and security agencies solely responsible for protecting Lebanese territory.

(With inputs from agencies)