Politics

15 political and military events that rocked Lebanon and the world

Lebanon has seen eventful times over the last five decades that has made it degrade from “Switzerland of the Middle East” that was attributed to it in the 1950s and 1960s to a “Failed State” according to international reports after military and partisan parties gripped the power of the country which now stands at 100 billion dollars in various debts.

218News takes you to the most important events that shaped the Lebanon we know now and impacted the entire region.

1975

Lebanon’s civil war started and continued to 1990 all across the country. The war was shaped by foreign interventions backing political parties that started carrying weapons. The Palestinian military presence in Lebanon as well as the Israeli military intervention fueled the war.

1976

Arab countries urge Syria to deploy its army to prevail security in Lebanon, which Syria did, but later the Syrian army became part of the civil war as it sided with certain political parties. Lebanese people later considered the Syrian Army’s presence on their land an occupation.

1982

Israel invades Lebanon. The Israeli army reached north Beirut in an attempt to end the presence of Palestinian military movements based in Lebanon. The Israeli invasion helped some Lebanese factions strengthen their positions in the civil war.

1988

Saudi Arabia proposes an initiative to Lebanese conflicting parties in Taif city to discuss a political agreement to end the civil war. After negotiations, Lebanese parties agreed to “Taif Agreement” that established a sectarian country in Lebanon (a country ruled by different religious sects between Muslims and Christian’s.) This is what Lebanese people have revolted againt in October 2019.

1990

Lebanon’s civil war ends and all militias retreated to their camps. A civilian government was formed and the military one was terminated after being formed by Lebanese Army Commander Michel Aoun – current president. The Lebanese parliament was elected by religious sects’ consociationalism.

1990

Assassination of the first Lebanese president after the civil war, René Moawad, came hours before he took the oath. The parliament then elected the military leader Elias Hrawi as the president to fill the vacuum. Rebuilding Lebanon started to construct what was destroyed over 15 years of bloody civil war conflicts.

1992

The main figure in the Taif Agreement, Lebanese businessman, Rafic Hariri, resurfaced in Lebanon as the Prime Minister. He was known as a dual French-Suadi business tycoon and was willing to reconstruct Lebanon given his construction expertise.

1996

Israel wages war on Lebanon, targeting newly built infrastructure and committing massacres, including the Qana massacre in which Israel was responding to Lebanese factions which were launching attacks agaisnt it on the borders.

2000

Israeli airstrikes hit Lebanon, destroying electricity networks and infrastructure amid discontent by Lebanese people from the Syrian army as Syria was meddling in Lebanon’s politics, such as replacing governments and presidents, the last of which was imposing Émile Lahoud.

2004

UN Security Council issues resolution (1559) that says Lebanese people are entitled to deciding their own political fate without regional military and political trusteeship. This was orchestrated by Lebanese politicians with the then-president of France Jacques Chirac – mainly against Syria, paving the way for calling on Syria to leave Lebanon. Syria, on the other hand, led a smearing political campaign against Rafic Hariri for his role in the new resolution.

2005

A massive car bombing rocks Beirut and kills tens of people, including Rafic Hariri, who was leading the elections to become and his allies the top power in Lebanon. An international court was convened to single out the parties behind the assassination of Hariri amid fingers pointed at Syria, but Damascus denied any links to the incident.

2005

Millions of Lebanese people “with and against” Syria’s presence took to the streets creating two political movements taking their names of the days of the month the demonstrations started (8th of March with Syrian presence and 14th of March agaisnt it.) Later, Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad pulled out the army from Lebanon.

2006

Israel wages new war on Lebanon after Hezbollah fighters tired to kidnap two Israeli soldiers. Syria-and-Iarn backed Hezbollah showed resilience in the fighting that went on for 33 days and then a Security Council resolution helped place a ceasefire that ended the war with a setback for Israel as it was the party that was seen as the defeated one in that war.

2008

Hezbollah and its allies attack different cities in Lebanon and blockade roads after the government issued some legislations that were considered by Hezbollah as a way to take away their weapons and military might, in addition to sacking some security officials from their posts. The chaos continued in Lebanon until Qatar intervened and held a conference in Doha that came up with solutions and agreements to have a new president, the then-chief-in-command of the Lebanese army Michel Suleiman.

2016

Michel Aoun becomes president of Lebanon by local and regional agreements after three years of political vacuum – a country without a president – and Saad Hariri was appointed Prime Minister for the third time since 2009. This has led to more deterioration in people’s social and economic lives. Lebanese people got fed up with the harsh taxes and then they decided to take to the streets in October 2019 to overthrow the current political elite.

Related Articles

Back to top button