Talk:Lebanon/Current

Current situation

Main article: 2006–present Lebanese political crisis

Lebanon's current situation is highly fragile, as opposition to the standing government recently spiked in an uprising reminiscent of the Cedar Revolution and the events that precipitated the 1975-1990 civil war. Hezbollah, a guerrilla group that gained increasing political clout after its summer war with Israel and that is currently the most powerful militia in Lebanon, the Christian Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), and the Amal Movement joined forces, demanding more seats in the government. They claimed that this was necessary in order to establish a "national unity government", while others viewed it was an attempt to gain veto power over all government actions. The opposition group claimed that the current distribution of seats in both the Parliament and the Cabinet did not reflect the true will of the Lebanese people, demanding the immediate resignation of the current government as well as early elections. After the majority government coalition refused, and two weeks before a vote on the creation of an international tribunal to investigate the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, five Shiite Ministers from Hezbollah and Amal resigned, along with one Christian Minister from the Free Patriotic Movement. One week later, Lebanon's Minister of Industry Pierre Amine Gemayel, was assassinated by gunmen in the outskirts of Beirut. This created a political crisis because if nine or more ministers left the Cabinet or died, the government would automatically fall. On November 27, 2006, the Cabinet passed the draft accord supporting the creation of an international tribunal to investigate Hariri's assassination, without the Ministers from the opposition group.

On December 1, 2006, a day after Hassan Nasrallah in a televised address had called on people from "different regions, thoughts, beliefs, religions, ideologies and different traditions" to take part in the 2006 Lebanese Anti-Government Protest, an estimated 800,000 demonstrators amassed peacefully in downtown Beirut. By nighttime, several thousand protestors remained to begin a sit-in, setting up tents and vowing to not leave until Prime Minister Fouad Siniora resigns.

Sporadic, violent clashes between pro-government and anti-government groups have flared up, stoking the fears of a possible civil war, leaving one man dead and 21 injured. Nonetheless, the daily protests and nightly sit-ins continue.

On December 7, 2006, Le Monde reported that a top UN official has been informed by Abbas Zaki, the Palestinian Liberation Organization representative in Lebanon, of an assassination plot, by Fatah Al-Islam, a group of 50 al-Qaeda jihadist militants from Iraq, who entered Lebanon via Syria, to assassinate 36 anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon. The group set up operations in the Nahr Al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

Also on December 7, 2006, Hassan Nasrallah issued another televised speech calling for further protests, and demanded that the death of Ahmad Mahmoud should not serve as an excuse for any violent clashes. He also made a solemn oath that Lebanon's Shiites would not be "dragged" into a sectarian war with Sunnis.

On December 8, 2006, Israel warns the U.N. force in South Lebanon that al-Qaida is planning a terrorist attack against international peacekeepers.

On December 9, 2006, Lebanon's pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud rejected the proposal passed without representation from the opposition group on November 27, 2006, blocking the creation of the international tribunal to investigate Hariri's assassination, citing the Cabinet as unconstitutional. The Cabinet is expected to seek parliamentary approval for the tribunal without the President's signature, however Nabih Berri, the Speaker of the Parliament and leader of the pro-Syrian opposition group Amal, is not expected to convene the Parliament for a vote, citing similar unconstitutionality grounds. Berri supposedly received a death threat from Maher al-Assad, the younger brother of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, threatening Berri if he convenes Parliament for a vote on the accord.

On December 10, 2006, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah accepted in principle an Arab League plan to stabilize the Lebanese political crisis. According to the plan, the number of ministers in the Lebanese government will grow to 30. Two thirds of them will represent the parliamentary majority and one third will be from the opposition. The plan also gives the new government power to establish a new international court for the investigation of the murder of former prime minister Rafik Hariri. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said "We don't want Lebanon to be an arena of the wars of others. Lebanon is a nation, not an arena," in a veiled reference to Hezbollah's backers in Syria and Iran.

On 23 January 2007 the opposition protesters paralyzed Lebanon in massive demonstrations leaving three people from both sides dead, and more than 100 injured.

On 25 January 2007 the Hezbollah-led opposition called off its general strike. The uneasy calm underscores who has a say on Lebanon's fate. More than $7.6 billion in grants and loans were pledged at the Paris 3 conference to help Lebanon recover from the summer war and its $40 billion debt, including $1.1 billion pledged by Saudi Arabia, $770 million pledged by the United States, and $700 million pledged by each the Arab Monetary Fund and World Bank. But amid the promises of economic reform, Beirut witnessed one of the darkest episodes of sectarian violence in its recent history, as arguments amongst the students of the Beirut Arab University erupted into aggressive fighting that left four dead and 150 injured. Later in the afternoon, the offices of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, situated near the fighting zone, were burned. In response to the escalating violence, the Lebanese army imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Beirut after having mobilized its troops throughout the city. Snipers, shootings, sectarian attacks and roadblocks combined with violence which killed seven and wounded close to 400 have revived civil war memories for Lebanese. Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, whose leaders have been at political odds for months, fought with sticks and stones in the capital. Gunmen picked off targets from surrounding buildings. Four were killed.

On 27 January 2007 Hezbollah founder Sheikh Subhi Tufaili accused Iran of stirring trouble between Shiites and Sunnis.

On 29 January 2007 the U.S. condemned Syria, Iran and Hezbollah for trying to destabilize Lebanon, and called for "those responsible for creating chaos" to be "called to account". The U.S. may also take action against Israel for its illegal use of US-made cluster bombs against Lebanese towns and villages from which Hizbollah fighters fired rockets.

On February 8, 2007, the U.S. delivered 60 new vehicles to Lebanon's security forces as part of effort to support the government of the country's fight against Hezbollah, the State Department said. Lebanese authorities seized a truck carrying weapons in the outskirts of Beirut. Hezbollah has demanded the return of the lorry and the arms.

On 13 February 2007 there were explosions at 0930 (local time) in two minibuses full of passengers. Initial reports said 12 people had died and injured 20 in Ain Alaq, south of Bickfaya. The death toll was initially reported as much higher, but the Lebanese Red Cross said its workers had only delivered three bodies to hospitals. Two Lebanese, Laurice Gemayel and Michel Attar, as well as an Egyptian laborer were killed. A mass rally was planned for (February 14) in downtown Beirut to mark the second anniversary of the killing of Rafik Hariri.

On 14 February 2007 hundreds of thousands of defiant Lebanese gathered peacefully in Martyr’s Square to commemorate the second anniversary of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination. The large number proved that the Cedar Revolution was still going on, especially when the crowds turned the commemoration into a defiant opportunity to blame Syria and Hezbollah for Lebanon's political woes. The demonstrators fell silent at exactly 12:55 PM, the time of the explosion that killed Hariri on Feb. 14, 2005. Only the muezzin making the Islamic call to prayer and the solemn tolling of church bells could be heard, a refreshing reaffirmation of the coexistence that can be possible in Lebanon.

On February 20, 2007, Lebanon's Cabinet passed a resolution to ask for a one-year extension of the ongoing inquiry into the killing of Rafik al-Hariri.

On February 28, 2007, nearly six months after feverish search by U.S. and European intelligence agencies for lethal "liquid explosives" Lebanese police confiscated the first batch of such deadly weapons.

On March 1, 2007, Hezbollah is currently building a new line of defense in southern Lebanon. U.S. assures Saniora of support. Lebanon is experiencing a surge in brain drain. Lebanon police releases sketch of suspect in Gemayel murder.

On March 2, 2007, Beirut economic crisis looms as 80 shops close. Merchants and owners of shops, restaurants, and businesses in downtown Beirut see their existence in peril after a three-month political confrontation that has paralyzed the city center, showing no sign of abating. Hundreds of Sunni Muslim jihadists have reportedly turned up in southern Lebanon and are concentrated around the city of Tyre, living in a Palestinian refugee camp.

On March 4, 2007, hundreds of Lebanese peace activists demonstrated in Beirut against perceived threats of civil war to tell politicians "...that they are irresponsible and that the Lebanese people will not be dragged into a new civil war." Iran supported Riyadh's efforts to resolve the political crisis in Lebanon and agreed with the Saudis to diffuse Sunni-Shiite strife.

On March 6, 2007, after 3 months of sit-ins, labor strikes and deadly street clashes, and at the insistence of Saudi Arabia, the political crisis that sparked the worst unrest in Lebanon since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war looks set to wind down with indications that a deal will be announced by the end of the week.

On March 13, 2007, six captured members of Fatah al-Islam, a Palestinian group based in Syria and linked to al-Qaeda, confessed to the February 13, 2007 bombings of two buses in Ain Alaq, which killed three people and injured 18 others. Some of those arrested held Syrian or Saudi nationalities, and some were Palestinians from the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus. Based in the Nahr al-Bared and Bedawi Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Fatah al-Islam was a break off group from Fatah al-Intifada, part of the "Syrian intelligence-security apparatus" according to Lebanon's interior minister Hassan Sabeh. Fatah al-Islam denied any involvement in the bus bombings.