Islamabad (TDI): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday congratulated Nawaf Salam on his election as the Prime Minister of Lebanon.
The prime minister, in a post on social media platform X, said that Pakistan valued its relations with Lebanon and looked forward to working with Salam to deepen Pak-Lebanon cooperation.
Nawaf Salam, the president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, has been named as Lebanon’s new prime minister after two-thirds of the 128 members of parliament nominated him for the position.
Salam belongs to a prominent Sunni family from Beirut.
His uncle, Salam, helped Lebanon gain freedom from France in 1943 and served several terms as prime minister.
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His cousin, Tammam, also served prime minister from 2014 to 2016.
He holds a doctorate in political science from Sciences Po university in France, a doctorate in history from the Sorbonne and a Master of Law degree from Harvard Law School.
Salam worked as a lawyer and a lecturer at multiple universities before serving as Lebanon’s permanent representative to the UN in New York from 2007 to 2017.
He became a member of the ICJ – the UN’s top court – in 2018, and was elected president for a 3-year term last February.
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He took over as the ICJ heard a case brought by South Africa that accused Israeli troops of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Israel dismissed the allegation as baseless.
Farkhund Yousafzai is an Associate Editor at The Diplomatic Insight.
