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.
