After years of gridlock, Lebanon’s parliament elected Aoun, the chief military commander, as president. His win could unlock money for postwar reconstruction.

Lebanon's parliament elected the former army commander president after a two-year vacancy for the head of state.

Lebanon’s parliament voted Thursday to elect army commander Joseph Aoun as head of state, filling a more than two-year-long presidential vacuum. The vote came weeks after a tenuous ceasefire agreement halted a 14-month conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and at a time when Lebanon’s leaders are seeking