Lebanon is the historic home of the Phoenicians, Semitic traders whose maritime culture flourished there for more than 2,000 years (c.2700-450 BC). Ancient ruins in Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and Beirut show a civilized nation, with urban centres and sophisticated arts. Phoenicians came originally from Babylon; after coming down to the Arabian desert, they marched to the land historically known as Syria.

Lebanon was a centre for many nations and cultures. Its people roamed the Mediterranean seas, skilled in trade and in art. They were also the creators of the oldest known 24-letter alphabet, a shortening of earlier 30-letter alphabets such as Proto-Sinaitic and Ugaritic.

The region was a territory of the Roman Empire and during the Middle Ages was involved in the Crusades. It was then taken by the Ottoman Empire.

The mountainous territory of Mount Lebanon has long been a shelter for minority and persecuted groups. The Maronite Christians, the Druze, and other groups thus settled there.

During the nineteenth century the town of Beirut became the most important port of the region supplanting Acre. This was mostly because Moun Lebanon became a centre of silk production for export to Europe. This industry made the region wealthy, but also dependent on links to Europe. Since most of the silk went to Marseille the French began to have a great impact in the region.

The region was also briefly conquered by the armies of Mehmet Ali of Egypt during his war with the Sultan. This destabilized the region. Another problem was that one of the policies of the French was to favour the Maronite Christians which created economic and religious tensions in the region. In 1860 violence broke out between groups leaving many dead. French pressure forced the Ottoman government to create a separate semi-autonomous Province of Lebanon that would be controlled by the Maronites.

Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, the League of Nations mandated the five provinces that make up present-day Lebanon to France. France responded to Maronit pressure and greatly increased the provinces territory creating a "Greater Lebanon" where the Maronites were just barely in the majority. Modern Lebanon's constitution, drawn up in 1926, specified a balance of political power between the various religious groups. Seats in the parliament were divided 6 to 5 in favour of the Maronites.

The country gained independence in 1943, and French troops withdrew in 1946. Lebanon's history from independence has been marked by alternating periods of political stability and turmoil interspersed with prosperity built on Beirut's position as a regional center for finance and trade. Beirut was called the Paris of the Middle East, until the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War.

In 1958, during the last months of President Camille Chamoun's term, an insurrection broke out, and 5,000 United States Marines were briefly dispatched to the capital Beirut on July 15 in response to an appeal by the government. After the crisis, a new government, led by the popular former general Fuad Chehab, was formed. During the 1960s, Lebanon enjoyed a period of relative calm, with Beirut-focused tourism and banking sector driven prosperity. Other areas of the country, however, notably the South, North, and Biqa' Valley, experienced increasing impoverishment.

In the early 1970s, difficulties arose over the presence of Palestinian refugees, many of whom arrived after 1967, fleeing Jordanian deportation in the "Black September" of 1970. Among the latter refugees were Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Exacerbated by this refugee problem, Muslim and Christian tensions grew more intense.

Contents

1 Beginning of the civil war: 1975–81 2 International intervention: 1982–84 3 Worsening conflict and political crisis: 1985–89 4 End of the Civil War: 1989–91 5 Postwar reconstruction: 1992 to Present 6 External links, resources, and references

Beginning of the civil war: 1975–81

Main article: Lebanese Civil War

Full-scale civil war broke out in April 1975. After shots were fired at a church, gunmen in Christian East Beirut ambushed a busload of Palestinians. Palestinian forces joined predominantly leftist-Muslim factions as the fighting persisted, eventually spreading to most parts of the country and precipitating the President's call for support from Syrian troops in June 1976. In fall of 1976, Arab summits in Riyadh and Cairo set out a plan to end the war. The resulting Arab Deterrent Force, which included Syrian troops already present, moved in to help separate combatants. As an uneasy quiet settled over Beirut, security conditions in the south began to deteriorate.

After a PLO attack on a bus in northern Israel and the resulting Israeli retaliation caused heavy casualties, Israel invaded Lebanon in March 1978, occupying most of the area south of the Litani River. In response, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 425 calling for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces and creating the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), charged with maintaining peace. Israeli forces withdrew later in 1978, turning over positions inside Lebanon along the border to a Lebanese ally, the South Lebanon Army (SLA) under the leadership of Major Saad Haddad, thus informally setting up a 12-mile wide "security zone" to protect Israeli territory from crossborder attack.

In 1981, heavily armed forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) occupied large areas of southern Lebanon. Attacks against Israeli territory increased, as the PLO's armed forces used Lebanon as a base to attack Israel with rockets and artillery. PLO soldiers fought with Lebanese forces, and killed many thousands of Lebanese citizens. Due to ongoing civil war since 1975, Lebanon had no effective central government at the time.

International intervention: 1982–84

An interim cease-fire brokered by the United States in 1981 between Syria, the PLO, and Israel was respected for almost a year. Several incidents, cross fire between the two parties, led to the June 6, 1982, Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon. The Israelis labeled the invasion Operation Peace for Galilee, with a view toward paving the way for an Israeli-Lebanese peace agreement. With these aims in mind, Israeli forces drove 25 miles into Lebanon, moving into East Beirut with the support of Maronite Christian leaders and militia.

At first, distressed with the PLOs existence, a few Lebanese welcomed the Israelis, but as the occupation grew from weeks to months, popular resentment against Israel grew. During the invasion Israel and the PLO engaged in artillery duels in urban areas (allegedly this was an Israeli policy, though PLO intentionally used civillians as cover for attacks as well.) On June 13, Israel laid seige to Beirut, shelling and bombing the PLO targets in the city. Within six months, Israel withdrew from most of Lebanon, but they left troops behind in a ten mile wide security zone along the Israeli-Lebanese border. With their allies, the South Lebanon Army , Israel hoped to prevent future assaults.

A multinational force landed in Beirut on August 20, 1982 to oversee the PLO withdrawal from Lebanon and U.S. mediation resulted in the evacuation of Syrian troops and PLO fighters from Beirut. The agreement also provided for the deployment of a multinational force comprised of U.S. Marines along with French and Italian units. A new President, Bachir Gemayel, was elected with acknowledged Israeli backing. On September 14, however, he was assassinated. The next day, Israeli troops crossed into West Beirut to secure Muslim militia strongholds and stood back as Lebanese Christian militias massacred approximately 300-3,000 Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Then Israeli Minister of Defense Ariel Sharon was held indirectly responsible for the massacre by the Kahan Commission and later resigned. With U.S. backing, Amine Gemayel, chosen by the Lebanese parliament to succeed his brother as president, focused anew on securing the withdrawal of Israeli and Syrian forces.

On May 17, 1983, Lebanon, Israel, and the United States signed an agreement on Israeli withdrawal that was conditioned on the departure of Syrian troops. Syria opposed the agreement and declined to discuss the withdrawal of its troops, effectively stalemating further progress. In August 1983, Israel withdrew from the Shuf (southeast of Beirut), thus removing the buffer between the Druze and the Christian militias and triggering another round of brutal fighting. By September, the Druze had gained control over most of the Shuf, and Israeli forces had pulled out from all but the southern security zone, where they remained until May 2000. The virtual collapse of the Lebanese Army in February 1984, following the defection of many Muslim and Druze units to militias, was a major blow to the government. With the U.S. Marines looking ready to withdraw, Syria and Muslim groups stepped up pressure on Gemayal. On March 5 the Lebanese Government canceled the May 17 agreement; the Marines departed a few weeks later.

This period of chaos witnessed the beginning of retaliatory attacks launched against U.S. and Western interests. They included the April 18, 1983 suicide attack at the U.S. Embassy in West Beirut (63 dead), the bombing of the headquarters of U.S. and French forces on October 23, 1983 (298 dead), the assassination of American University of Beirut, President Malcolm Kerr on January 18, 1984, and the bombing of the U.S. Embassy annex in East Beirut on September 20, 1984 (9 dead).

It also saw the rise of radicalism amongst the country's different factions. In 1982 Hizballah emerged from a loose coalition of Shi'a groups, supported by 1500 Iranian Revolutionary Guards (see: Hezbollah.)

Worsening conflict and political crisis: 1985–89

Between 1985 and 1989, factional conflict worsened as various efforts at national reconciliation failed. Heavy fighting took place in the "War of the Camps " in 1985 and 1986 as the Shi'a Muslim Amal militia sought to rout the Palestinians from Lebanese strongholds. The Amal movement had been organized in mid-1975, at the beginning of the civil war, to confront what were seen as Israeli plans to displace the Lebanese population by permanently settling Palestinians in Lebanon. Amal's (Its charismatic founder Imam Musa Sadr disappeared in Libya 3 years later. Its current leader, Nabih Berri, is the speaker of the National Assembly.) The combat returned to Beirut in 1987, with Palestinians, leftists, and Druze fighters allied against Amal, eventually drawing further Syrian intervention. Violent confrontation flared up again in Beirut in 1988 between Amal and Hizballah.

Meanwhile, on the political front, Prime Minister Rashid Karami , head of a government of national unit set up after the failed peace efforts of 1984, was assassinated on June 1, 1987. President Gemayel's term of office expired in September 1988. Before stepping down, he appointed another Maronite Christian, Lebanese Armed Forces Commanding General Michel Aoun, as acting Prime Minister, contravening Lebanon's unwritten "National Pact," which required the Prime Minister to be Sunni Muslim. Muslim groups rejected the move and pledged support to Salim al-Hoss , a Sunni who had succeeded Karami. Lebanon was thus divided between a Christian government in East Beirut and a Muslim government in West Beirut, with no President.

In February 1989 Aoun attacked the rival Lebanese Forces militia. By March he turned his attention to other militias, launching what he termed a "War of Liberation" against the Syrians and their Lebanese militia allies. In the months that followed, Aoun rejected both the agreement that ultimately ended the civil war and the election of another Christian leader as president. A Lebanese-Syrian military operation in October 1990 forced him to take cover in the French Embassy in Beirut and later into exile in Paris, where he remains.

End of the Civil War: 1989–91

The Taif Agreement of 1989 marked the beginning of the end of the war. In January of that year, a committee appointed by the Arab League, chaired by Kuwait and including Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Morocco, had begun to formulate solutions to the conflict, leading to a meeting of Lebanese parliamentarians in Ta'if, Saudi Arabia, where they agreed to the national reconciliation accord in October. Returning to Lebanon, they ratified the agreement on November 4 and elected Rene Mouawad as President the following day. Assassinated in a car bombing in Beirut on November 22 as his motorcade returned from Lebanese independence day ceremonies, Mouawad was succeeded by Elias Hrawi, who remained in office until 1998.

In August 1990, parliament and the new president agreed on constitutional amendments embodying some of the political reforms envisioned at Taif. The National Assembly expanded to 108 seats and was divided equally between Christians and Muslims. In March 1991, parliament passed an amnesty law that pardoned all political crimes prior to its enactment. The amnesty was not extended to crimes perpetrated against foreign diplomats or certain crimes referred by the cabinet to the Higher Judicial Council. In May 1991, the militias (with the important exception of Hizballah) were dissolved, and the Lebanese Armed Forces began to slowly rebuild themselves as Lebanon's only major non-sectarian institution.

Some violence still occurred. In late December 1991 a car bomb (estimated to carry 220 pounds of TNT) exploded in the Muslim neighborhood of Basta . At least thirty people were killed, and 120 wounded, including former Prime Minister Shafik Wazzan, who was riding in a bulletproof car. It was the deadliest car bombing in Lebanon since June 18, 1985, when an explosion in the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli killed sixty people and wounded 110.

In all, it is estimated that more than 100,000 were killed, and another 100,000 handicapped by injuries, during Lebanon's 16 year war. Thousands of people lost limbs during many stages of planting of land-mines. The United Nations is leading an effort to clean up the country's un-mapped mines, left overs from the civil war, Israeli-Syrian fighting and Hezbollah's activity against the IDF. Up to one-fifth of the pre-war resident population, or about 900,000 people, were displaced from their homes, of whom perhaps a quarter of a million emigrated permanently. The last of the Westerners kidnapped by Hezbollah during the mid-1980s were released in May 1992.

Lebanon has made progress toward rebuilding its political institutions and regaining its national sovereignty since 1991 and the end of the devastating 16-year civil war. Under the Taif Agreement - the blueprint for national reconciliation - the Lebanese have established an obstensibly more equitable political system, particularly by giving Muslims a greater say in the political process; critics, however, charge that the new arrangements instituitionalize sectarian divisions in the government. Since the end of the war, the Lebanese have conducted several elections, most of the militias have been weakened or disbanded, and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) have extended central government authority over about two-thirds of the country. Only the radical Shi'a party Hizballah retains its weapons. Hizballah is dedicated to the creation of Iranian-style Islamic republic in Lebanon, and the removal of all non-Islamic influences from the area.

Postwar reconstruction: 1992 to Present

Postwar social and political instability, fueled by economic uncertainty and the collapse of the Lebanese currency, led to the resignation of Prime Minister Omar Karami , also in May 1992 , after less than 2 years in office. He was replaced by former Prime Minister Rashid al Sulh , who was widely viewed as a caretaker to oversee Lebanon's first parliamentary elections in 20 years.

By early November 1992, a new parliament had been elected, and Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri had formed a cabinet, retaining for himself the finance portfolio. The formation of a government headed by a successful billionaire businessman was widely seen as a sign that Lebanon would make a priority of rebuilding the country and reviving the economy. Solidere, a private real estate company set up to rebuild downtown Beirut, was a symbol of Hariri's strategy to link economic recovery to private sector investment. After the election of then-commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces Émile Lahoud in 1998 following Hrawi's extended term as President, Salim al-Hoss again served as Prime Minister. Hariri returned to office as Prime Minister in November 2000. Although problems with basic infrastructure and government services persist, and Lebanon is now highly indebted, much of the civil war damage has been repaired throughout the country, and many foreign investors and tourists have returned.

If Lebanon has in part recovered over the past decade from the catastrophic damage to infrastructure of its long civil war, the social and political divisions that gave rise to and sustained that conflict remain largely unresolved. Parliamentary and more recently municipal elections have been held with fewer irregularities and more popular participation than in the immediate aftermath of the conflict, and Lebanese civil society generally enjoys significantly more freedoms than elsewhere in the Arab world. However, there are continuing sectarian tensions and unease about Syrian and other external influences. Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Ja'ja, convicted in 1994 for civil war-related offenses, remains imprisoned, and the LF is still banned.

In the late 1990s, the government took action against Sunni Muslim extremists in the north who had attacked its soldiers, and it continues to move against groups such as Asbat al-Ansar, which has been accused of being partnered with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. On January 24, 2002, Elie Hobeika, another former Lebanese Forces figure associated with the Sabra and Shatilla massacres who later served in three cabinets and the parliament, was assassinated in a car bombing in Beirut.

During Lebanon's civil war, Syria's troop deployment in Lebanon was legitimized by the Lebanese Parliament in the Taif Agreement, and supported by the Arab League. Fifteen years later, Damascus justifies its continued military presence in Lebanon by citing the continued weakness of the LAF, Beirut's requests, and the agreement with the Lebanese Government to implement all of the constitutional reforms in the Taif Agreement. Contrary to Taif, the Hezbollah militia has not been dismantled, and the LAF has not been allowed to deploy along the border with Israel, though it was called on to do so by UN Security Council Resolution 1391 , urged by UN Resolution UN Security Council Resolution 1496 , and demanded by UN Security Council Resolution 1559.

An estimated 20,000 Syrian troops (down from 35,000) remain in position in many areas of Lebanon, although Taif stipulations called for agreement between the Syrian and Lebanese Governments on their redeployment by September 1992. The Syrian existence in Lebanon maintains a modicum of stability, but its refusal to exit the country following Israel's 2000 withdrawal from south Lebanon has raised criticism from within Lebanon (initially among the Lebanese Maronite Christians[1] and Druze, but recently the Sunni Muslims as well.) Syria has been accused of turning Lebanon's Government into a puppet[2]. Recently, the US has begun applying pressure on Syria to end its occupation and cease interfering with internal Lebanese matters[3]. In 2004 Syria has been pressuring Lebanese MPs to back a constitutional amendment aimed at allowing Lebanon's two term pro-Syrian president Émile Lahoud two run for a third time (beyond the constitutional statute of limitations.) France, Germany and Britain, along with Lebanese politicians have joined the US in denouncing Syria's interference[4]. On September 2nd 2004 the UN Security Council adopted UN Security Council Resolution 1559, authored by France and the US in an uncommon show of cooperation. Echoing the Taif Agreement the resolution "calls upon all remaining foreign forces to withdraw from Lebanon" and " for the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias".

On May 22 2000, Israel completed its withdrawal from the south of Lebanon in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 425 [5]. A 50 square kilometer piece of disputed mountain terrain, commonly referred to as the Shebaa Farms, remains under the control of Israel. The UN has certified Israel's pullout [6], and regards the Shebaa Farms as occupied Syrian territory, thus implicitly positing that Lebanon's claim to Shebaa Farms is invalid.

In Resolution 425, the UN had set a goal of assisting the Lebanese government in a "return of its effective authority in the area", which would require an official Lebanese army presence there. Further, UN Security Council Resolution 1559 requires the dismantling of the Hezbollah militia. Yet, Hezbollah remains deployed along the Blue Line [7]. Both Hezbollah and Israel have violated the Blue Line more than once, according to the UN [8][9]. The UN Secretary-General has urged "all governments that have influence on Hezbollah to deter it from any further actions which could increase the tension in the area" [10]. Staffan de Misura, Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for Southern Lebanon, stated that he was "deeply concerned that air violations by Israel across the Blue Line during altercations with Hezbollah are continuing to take place" [11], calling "upon the Israeli authorities to cease such violations and to fully respect the Blue Line" [12]. In 2001 de Misura similarly expressed his concern to Lebanon's prime minister for allowing Hezbollah to violate the Blue Line, saying it was a "clear infringement" of UN Resolution 425, under which the UN certified Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon as complete [13].

On September 3 2004, the National Assembly voted 96-29 to amend the constitution to allow the pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, three more years in office. Three cabinet ministers were absent from the vote and later resigned. The USA charged that Syria exercised pressure against the National Assembly to amend the constitution, and many of the Lebanese rejected it, saying that it was considered as contradictive to the constitution and its principles. Including these is the Maronite Patriarch Mar Nasrallah Botros Sfeir -the most eminent religious figure for Maronites- and the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.

To the surprise of many, Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who had vehemently opposed this amendment, finally accepted it, and so did most of his party. This amending comes in discordance with the UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which called for a new presidential election in Lebanon.

On October 1 2004 one of the main dissenting voices to Émile Lahoud's term extension, the newly resigned Druze ex-minister Marwan Hamadeh was the target of a car bomb attack as his vehicle slowed to enter his Beirut home. Mr. Hamadeh and his bodyguard were wounded and his driver killed in the attack. Druze leader Walid Jumblatt appealed for calm, but said the car bomb was a clear message for the opposition. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed his serious concern over the attack[14].

On October 7 2004 UN Secretary General Kofi Annan reported to the Security Council that Syria had failed to withdraw its forces from Lebanon. Mr. Annan concluded his report saying that "It is time, 14 years after the end of hostilities and four years after the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, for all parties concerned to set aside the remaining vestiges of the past. The withdrawal of foreign forces and the disbandment and disarmament of militias would, with finality, end that sad chapter of Lebanese history." [15]

External links, resources, and references

• Lebanon 'split' over Assad tirade BBC, October 11, 2004
• Syria has not withdrawn troops from Lebanon, Annan reports UN News Centre, October 7, 2004
• Syria 'refusing to leave Lebanon' BBC, October 2, 2004
• Ex-minister hurt in Beirut blast BBC, October 1, 2004
• Hizballah and Syria's "Lebanese Card" Nicholas Blanford, Middle East Online Report, September 14, 2004
• In rare move, Gulf ministers urge Syria to withdraw troops from Lebanon CNews, September 13, 2004
• Syria feels squeeze over Lebanon Kim Ghattas, BBC, September 5, 2004
• UN Press Release SC/8181 UN, September 2, 2004
• Lebanon: Close Security Council vote backs free elections, urges foreign troop pullout UN, September 2, 2004
• Maronite archbishops slam corruption, Syrian role Daily Star, September 2, 2004
• US draft resolution at UN demands respect for Lebanon's sovereignty, AFP, September 2, 2004
• UN vote due on Syria resolution BBC, September 2, 2004
• US and France press for UN resolution on Lebanese sovereignty Financial Times, September 1, 2004
• Move to bolster Lebanon president BBC, August 28, 2004
• Thirteen-Year Itch - The Demise of Lebanon's Taif Agreement? Middle East Report, August 13, 2002
• Syria: The power in Lebanon BBC, 16 April, 2001