Lebanon
- For other uses, see Lebanon (disambiguation).
The Lebanese Republic or Lebanon is a country in the Middle East, along the Mediterranean Sea (on the west), bordered by Syria on the east and north, and Israel on the south.
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| Official language | Arabic | ||||
| Spoken languages | Arabic, French, English, Armenian | ||||
| Capital | Beirut | ||||
| President | Émile Lahoud | ||||
| Prime Minister | Najib Mikati (resigned after parliamentary elections) | ||||
| Area - Total - % water | Ranked 166th 10,452 km² 1.6% | ||||
| Population | Ranked 127th
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| Independence | 22 November 1943 | ||||
| Currency | Lebanese pound (LBP) | ||||
| Time zone | UTC +2 (DST +3) | ||||
| National anthem | Koullouna Lilouataan Lil Oula Lil Alam | ||||
| National emblem | Lebanon Cedar | ||||
| Internet TLD | .lb | ||||
| Calling Code | 961 | ||||
| Contents |
Name
The country was named after Mount Lebanon; the word "Lebanon" (also "Loubnan" or "Lebnan") comes from the Aramaic word laban which means "white" and refers to snow-capped mountains. An Arabic cognate of the word laban also means "yogurt".
History
Main article: History of Lebanon
Lebanon is one of the fifteen present-day countries that comprise what is considered to be the Cradle of Humanity. It is the historic home of the Phoenicians, Semitic traders whose maritime culture flourished there for more than 2,000 years. 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.
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.
Modern Lebanon's constitution, drawn up in 1926, specified a balance of political power among the major religious groups.
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.
Civil War, (1975-1990)
Main article: Lebanese Civil War
Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, noted for its wide boulevards, French-style architecture, and modernity, was called the Paris of the Middle East before the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War.
After the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, Lebanon became home to more than 110,000 Palestinian refugees who had fled from Israel. More Palestinian refugees arrived in Lebanon after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and Black September, and by 1975, they numbered more than 300,000, led by Yassir Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). In the early 1970s, difficulties arose over the presence of Palestinian refugees, and full-scale civil war broke out in April 1975, leaving the nation with no effective central government.
On one side were a number of mostly Maronite militias, the most important of which was the one linked to the Phalangist Party; its commander was Bachir Gemayel. The other side comprised a coalition of Palestinians, Sunni, and Druze forces. By early 1976, the war was going poorly for the Maronites, and Syria sent 40,000 troops into the country to prevent them from being overrun; that Baathist Syrians were fighting against Palestinian forces was and remains ironic. By 1978, many of the Maronites had become convinced that the Syrians were really occupying Lebanon for reasons of their own, and by September of that year, they were openly feuding. The Syrian forces remained in Lebanon, effectively dominating its government, into the first years of the twenty-first century.
Cross-border attacks from Lebanon against Israeli territory led to an Israeli invasion in March 1978; Israel withdrew later that year in response to UN pressures.
The PLO's armed forces continued to use Lebanon as a base to attack Israel with rockets and artillery, and in 1982 Israel again invaded Lebanon with the objective of evicting the PLO. Israeli forces occupied areas from the southern Lebanese border with Israel northward into areas of Beirut. It was during this invasion that the first Sabra and Shatila massacre was committed by the Phalangist militia (under the command of Elie Hobeika). Israeli plans for Lebanon suffered a severe setback on 14 September 1982, with the assassination of the Phalangist leader and President-elect Bachir Gemayel, who was regarded as secretly sympathetic to Israel.
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.
This period saw the rise of radicalism among the country's different factions, and a number of landmark terrorist attacks against American forces, including the destruction of the United States Embassy by a truck bomb and an even deadlier attack on the U.S. Marines barracks. Concurrently, in 1982 Hezbollah was created by some of the old members of Amal with other religious clerics.
1988 and 1989 were years of unprecedented chaos. The National Assembly failed to elect a successor to President Amine Gemayel (who had replaced his slain brother Bachir in 1982), whose term expired on 23 September. Fifteen minutes before the expiry of his term, Gemayel appointed an interim administration headed by the army commander, General Michel Aoun. His predecessor, Selim al-Hoss, refused to accept his dismissal in Aoun's favour. Lebanon was thus left with no President, and two rival governments that feuded for power, along with more than forty private militias.
The Arab League-sponsored Taif Agreement of 1989 marked the beginning of the end of the war. In all, it is estimated that more than 100,000 were killed, and another 100,000 handicapped by injuries, during Lebanon's 15 year war. On May 22 2000, Israel unilaterally completed its withdrawal from the south of Lebanon in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 425 from 1978. On September 2 2004, the United Nations Security Council, recalling previous resolutions, especially 525 (1978), 520 (1982) and 1553 (July 2004), approved Resolution 1559, sponsored by the United States and France, demanding that Syria, though not mentioned by name, should withdraw its troops from Lebanon. "All foreign forces should withdraw from Lebanon" to allow for free elections.
The country is recovering from the effects of the civil war, with foreign investment and tourism on the rise. Syrian forces occupied large areas of the country until April 2005 (see Cedar Revolution below), and Iran exercises heavy influence over Hezbollah forces in the Beka'a Valley and Southern Lebanon. There has been a marked exodus of Christian Lebanese from the country. Nevertheless, areas of Lebanon and Beirut in particular are moving toward a sense of normality and stability. Lebanese civil society enjoys significantly more freedoms than elsewhere in the Arab world.
Cedar Revolution (aka. Intifada of Independence)
Main article: Cedar Revolution
Note: Although US and other media prefer calling it the "Cedar Revolution", Lebanese called it the Intifada of Independence
Cedar_revolution_20050228.jpg
On February 14, 2005, after 10 years of relative political stability, Lebanon was shaken by the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a car-bomb explosion. Accusations of responsibility were directed at Syria, Israel, and local gangsters, with anger at Syria being particularly widespread, because of its extensive military and intelligence presence in Lebanon, as well as the public rift between Hariri and Damascus over the extension of President Lahoud's term. Both Syria and Israel denied any involvement. After Hariri's assassination, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt alleged that a shaken Hariri had told him months before that he was personally threatened by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a 15-minute meeting in the Syrian capital Damascus in August 2004: "[President of Lebanon] Lahoud is me. ... If you and Chirac want me out of Lebanon, I will break Lebanon."[1]. Jumblatt said "When I heard him telling us those words, I knew that it was his condemnation of death." This testimony is contained, but not confirmed, in the UN's FitzGerald Report, issued 24 March 2005. Up to this point, no person or party has been directly accused of the murder. The Report has called for a further, much more extensive international inquiry. This has been seconded by the UN Secretary General and agreed to by the Lebanese government, but with reservations about respect for Lebanese sovereignty and the participation (not supremacy) of Lebanese agencies.[2]
Hariri's rift with Assad began with the former's vehement opposition to the Syrian-backed constitutional amendment that extended pro-Syrian president Lahoud's term in office. Hariri resigned over the incident.
It was reported by some sources that upon hearing purportedly leaked information from the United Nations' special investigation report that the Lebanese authorities had covered up evidence of the murder, Hariri's two sons fled Lebanon after being warned that they too were in danger of assassination. [3] However, both sons strenously denied these claims, asserting that they were called away by business which had been on hold since their father's murder.
The assassination resulted in huge anti-Syrian protests by Lebanese citizens in Beirut demanding the resignation of the pro-Syrian government. Following the examples of the Rose Revolution and Orange Revolution in 2004, the popular action was dubbed the "Cedar Revolution" by the US State Department, a name which quickly caught on among the international media. On February 28, 2005, as over 70,000 people demonstrated in Martyrs' Square, Prime Minister Omar Karami and his Cabinet resigned, although they remained in office temporarily in a caretaker role prior to the appointment of replacements.
In response, Hezbollah organized a large counter demonstration, staged on March 8 in Beirut, supporting Syria and accusing Israel and the United States of meddling in internal Lebanese affairs. Considered a terrorist group by the United States and Israel, Hezbollah is a secondary target of Resolution 1559, which demands all Lebanese militias be disarmed; it has since been trying to rally masses to protest against foreign intervention. This demonstration was much larger than earlier anti-Syrian protests. The BBC and other sources have commented that the response to Hezbollah's call was massive and denoted the power of Lebanon's single largest sectarian denomination, the Shiites. Anti-Syrian protests have been subjected to controversy, due to extensive anti-Syrian agitation by the Hariri-owned Future TV Lebanese network and other Hariri-linked media outlets, which dwarf Hizbollah's. CNN noted some news agencies estimated the crowd at 200,000 [4], the Associated Press news agency estimated that there were nearly 500,000 pro-Syrian protestors, while the New York Times and Los Angeles Times simply estimated "hundreds of thousands". [5], [6] Al-Jazeera reported a figure of 1.5 million, citing an unnamed official and the television station run by the Syrian-backed militia Amal.
On March 14, one month after Hariri's assassination, approximately one million protestors [7] rallied in Martyrs' Square, in the largest gathering to date. Protestors of all sects (even including a number of Shiites) marched for the truth of Hariri's murder and for what they call independence from Syrian occupation. The march reiterated their will for a sovereign, democratic, and unified country, free of Syria's hegemony.
In the weeks following the demonstrations, bombs were detonated in Christian areas near Beirut. Although the damages were mostly material, these acts demonstrate the danger of Lebanon relapsing into sectarian strife.
After weeks of unsuccessful negotiations to form a new government, Prime Minister Omar Karami resigned the post for the third time in his political career on 13 April 2005. Two days later, Najib Mikati, a US-educated millionaire businessman and former Minister of Transportation and Public Works, was appointed as Prime Minister-designate. A moderate pro-Syrian, Mikati secured the post through the support of the Opposition, which had previously boycotted such negotiations.
Withdrawal of Syrian troops
Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed, the top Syrian ally in the lebanese security forces, resigned on Monday, 25 April, just a day before the final Syrian troops pulled out of Lebanon.
On 26 April 2005, the last 250 Syrian troops left Lebanon.
During the departure ceremonies, Gen. Ali Habib, Syria's chief of staff, said that Syria's president had decided to recall his troops after the Lebanese army had been "rebuilt on sound national foundations and became capable of protecting the state."
UN forces led by Senegalese Brig. Gen. Mouhamadou Kandji were sent to Lebanon to verify the military withdrawal which was mandated by Security Council resolution 1559.
Politics
| Politics of Lebanon |
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