Michel Aoun, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement and Lebanon’s new president, has done what many might have considered impossible until the moment it happened — gaining the acquiescence of Hezbollah to form a new Lebanese government with Saad Hariri as prime minister.

As this column noted last week, Hariri’s return as premier reverses a decline in his political fortunes. Hariri now has the chance to recast the Future Party and the March 14 movement with a perhaps less heavy Saudi hand, and, aspirationally, to form a government that will avoid factional paralysis and, finally, offer a vision and agenda responsive to the needs of the Lebanese people.

Hariri’s success will ultimately depend on Aoun. Although Hariri received 110 votes from Lebanon’s 127 parliamentarians Nov. 3, the vote only took place at all because Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary-general, allowed it to happen. And Nasrallah agreed as a result of Aoun’s deft diplomacy. Despite Hezbollah’s opposition to Hariri, Nasrallah said on Nov. 4, the day after the vote, that he had made “possible facilities for his nomination.” He added, “We are not the negotiating side. Only [parliament] Speaker [Nabih] Berri is entitled to negotiate about forming the new government on our behalf.” Berri, who heads the Shiite Amal, had been a key holdout to the Aoun-Hariri deal but announced his support for Hariri’s bid after a meeting with Aoun on the day of the parliament’s vote on Hariri.

Ali Hashem reports that Aoun, in his speech to the parliament after taking the oath as president Oct. 31, set the tone for a new course in Lebanese politics: “For the first time in years, Aoun seemed cautious while reading his speech. It seemed clear that Aoun the president is not the same as Aoun the party leader, as he was keen to reassure different political factions and address their concerns. While he stressed the importance of political stability, Aoun said his country is currently sitting amid land mines and surrounded by the fires raging in the region. He said his priority is to prevent any sparks from those fires from spreading to Lebanon. Lebanon, he insisted, must stay out of regional conflicts and follow an independent foreign policy in accordance with its interests. Yet in the same speech, Aoun confirmed that Lebanon ‘will not spare any kind of resistance in the struggle with Israel to liberate occupied Lebanese territories’ and ‘will resort to pre-emptive deterrence in dealing with terrorist threats.’”