



Lebanese Republic

Climate: Typically Mediterranean, resembling that of southern California.

Population (est.): 4.4 million.
Annual growth rate (est): 1.4%.
Ethnic groups: Arab 93%, Armenian 6%.
Education: Years compulsory--8. Attendance--99%. Literacy--88.4%.
Health: Infant mortality rate--26/1,000 (2003). Life expectancy--male, 71 yrs; female 71.9 yrs.
Work force (950,000 excluding foreign labor, 1999): Industry, commerce, services--70%; agriculture--20%; government--10%.

Type: Parliamentary republic.
Independence: 1943.
Constitution: May 26, 1926 (amended).
Branches: Executive--president (chief of state, elected by simple majority of parliament for 6-year term), council of ministers (appointed). Legislative--unicameral parliament (128-member Chamber of Deputies elected for 4-year and renewable terms; next parliamentary elections in spring 2005. Judicial--secular and religious courts; combination of Ottoman, civil, and canon law; limited judicial review of legislative acts.
Administrative subdivisions: Eight provinces, each headed by a governor: Beirut, North Lebanon, South Lebanon, Mount Lebanon, Nabatiyah, Akkar, Ba'labakk-Hirmil, and Bekaa.
Suffrage: 21 years.

GDP (2003): $17.8 billion.
Annual growth rate (2003): 3.0%.
GDP per capita (2003): $4,800 (based on population estimate of 4.4 million).
Natural resources: Limestone, water.
Agriculture (11.7% of GDP): Products--citrus, potatoes, grapes, olives, apples, sugar beets, tobacco.
Industry (21.0% of GDP): Types--construction material, food processing, textiles and readymade garments, furniture, and jewelry.
Services (67.3% of GDP): Types--banking, tourism.
Trade (2002): Exports--$1.045 billion (f.o.b.). Major markets--Saudi Arabia, , U.A.E., Syria, U.S., and France. Imports--$6.44 billion (c.i.f.). Major suppliers--Italy, Germany, France, U.S., and Switzerland.








Beginning of the Civil War--1975-81

After a PLO attack on a bus in northern Israel and Israeli retaliation that 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 Maj. Saad Haddad, thus informally setting up a 12-mile wide "security zone" to protect Israeli territory from cross border attack.

U.S. Intervention--1982-84

In August 1982, 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, Bashir 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 aside as Lebanese Christian militias massacred almost 800 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 Kahane Commission and later resigned. With U.S. backing, Amin Gemayel, chosen by the Lebanese parliament to succeed his brother as president, focused anew on securing the withdrawal of Israeli and Syrian forces. The multinational force returned.




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 with Palestinians. (Its charismatic founder Imam Musa Sadr disappeared in Libya 3 years later. Its current leader, Nabih Berri, is the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies.) 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 unity 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 'Awn, 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 'Awn 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, 'Awn 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 Ta'if 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 Moawad as President the following day. Assassinated in a car bombing in Beirut on November 22 as his motorcade returned from Lebanese Independence Day ceremonies, Moawad was succeeded by Elias Hrawi, who remained in office until 1998.


In all, it is estimated that more than 100,000 were killed, and another 100,000 left handicapped, during Lebanon's 16 year civil war. 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 Western hostages taken during the mid-1980s were released in May 1992.

Postwar Reconstruction--1992 to Present


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 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 on civil war-related charges, remains imprisoned, and the LF is still banned, although Ja'ja supporters carry out periodic demonstrations and participate in local elections.

In January 2000 the government took action against Sunni Muslim extremists in the north who had attacked its soldiers, and it continues to act against groups such as Asbat al-Ansar, which has been linked to Usama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, and other extremists. On January 24, 2002, Elie Hobeika, a former Lebanese Forces figure associated with the Sabra and Shatila massacres who later served in three cabinets and the parliament, was assassinated in a car bombing in Beirut. An estimated 16,000 Syrian troops remain in position in many areas of Lebanon, notwithstanding Ta'if stipulations that called for agreement between the Syrian and Lebanese Governments on their redeployment by September 1992. Syrian troops did not leave greater Beirut until mid-2001. Israel withdrew its troops from south Lebanon in May 2000, where armed elements of Hizballah are still present.

A September 2004 vote by the Chamber of Deputies to amend the constitution to extend President Lahoud's term in office by three years amplified the question of Lebanese sovereignty and the continuing Syrian presence. The vote was clearly taken under Syrian pressure, exercised in large part through Syria's military intelligence service, whose chief in Lebanon acts as a virtual proconsul. The UN Security Council expressed its concern over the situation by passing Resolution 1559, which called for withdrawal of all remaining foreign forces from Lebanon, disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias, the deployment of the Lebanese armed forces throughout the country, and a free and fair electoral process in the presidential election.

Lebanon is a parliamentary democracy in which the people constitutionally have the right to change their government. However, from the mid-1970s until the parliamentary elections in 1992, civil war precluded the exercise of political rights. According to the constitution, direct elections must be held for the parliament every 4 years. Parliament, in turn, is tasked to elect a new president every 6 years. A presidential election scheduled for the autumn of 2004 was pre-empted by a parliamentary vote to extend the sitting president's term in office by three years. The president and parliament choose the prime minister. Political parties may be formed. However, what political parties do exist are weak and mostly based on sectarian interests.


  • The presidency is reserved for a Maronite Christian;
  • The Prime Minister, a Sunni Muslim, and
  • The president of the Chamber of Deputies, a Shi'a Muslim.



The Chamber of Deputies is elected by adult suffrage (majority age is 21) based on a system of proportional representation for the various confessional groups. Most deputies do not represent political parties as they are known in the West, nor do they form Western-style groups in the assembly. Political blocs are usually based on confessional and local interests or on personal/family allegiance rather than on political affinities.



Principal Government Officials
President--Emile Lahoud
Prime Minister--Umar Karami
Minister of Finance--Elias Saba
Minister of Foreign Affairs--Mahmoud Hammoud
Deputy Prime Minister--Issam Fares
Ambassador to the U.S.--Farid Abboud
Ambassador to the UN—Sami Qronfol


Lebanese political institutions often play a secondary role to highly confessionalized personality-based politics. Powerful families also still play an independent role in mobilizing votes for both local and parliamentary elections. Nonetheless, a lively panoply of domestic political parties, some even predating independence, still exists. The largest are all confessional based. The Phalange, National Bloc, National Liberal Party, Lebanese Forces and Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) are overwhelmingly Christian parties. Amal and Hizballah are the main rivals for the organized Shi'a vote, and the PSP (Progressive Socialist Party) is the leading Druze party. While Shi'a and Druze parties command fierce loyalty to their leaderships, there is more factional infighting among many of the Christian parties. Sunni parties have not been the standard vehicle for launching political candidates, and tend to focus across Lebanon's borders on issues that are important to the community at large. Lebanon's Sunni parties include the Independent Nasserite Movement (INM), the Tawhid, and Ahbash. In addition to domestic parties, there are branches of pan-Arab secular parties (Ba'ath parties, socialist and communist parties) that were active in the 1960s and throughout the period of civil war.






Lebanon embarked on a massive reconstruction program in 1992 to rebuild the country's physical and social infrastructure devastated by both the long civil war (1975-90) and the Israeli occupation of the south (1978-2000). In addition, the delicate social balance and the near-dissolution of central government institutions during the civil war handicapped the state as it sought to capture revenues to fund the recovery effort. Monetary stabilization coupled with high interest rate policies aggravated the debt service burden, leading to a substantial rise in budget deficits. Thus, the government accumulated significant debt, which by 2004 had reached $35 billion, or 190% of GDP, with the budget deficit to GDP ratio reaching 16.6%. Unemployment is estimated at 12-13% for 2003, but in the absence of reliable statistics, some estimate it could be as high as 20-25%.

After negative growth of -0.5% in 2000, the economy picked up slightly in 2001 and posted 2% growth, following measures taken by the government before the end of 2000 and during the first half of 2001 to boost economic activity, reform the administration, and move towards privatization. In February 2001, then-Prime Minister Hariri presented the government's reform program and economic policies to the World Bank and the European Union (EU) Presidents at a Paris-hosted conference (Paris I). The program focused on economic revival and sustainable growth, privatization, fiscal consolidation and structural reform, and monetary and financial stability.

The government also has maintained a firm commitment to the Lebanese pound, which has been pegged to the dollar since September 1999. The government passed an Investment Development Law as well as laws for the privatization of the telecom and the electricity sector, signed the Euro-Med Partnership Agreement with the EU in March 2003, and anticipates accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) by 2005. In order to increase revenues, the government introduced a 10% value added tax (VAT) that became applicable in February 2002 and a 5% tax that became applicable in February 2003.



On the fiscal front, the government continued to improve fiscal imbalances and succeeded in achieving a 27% improvement in the overall (budget and Treasury) primary surplus in the first half of 2003 over the corresponding period in 2002. In July 2003, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) publicly commended the government's efforts on fiscal reform and debt restructuring, while expressing concern over delays in privatization and securitization, and urging fiscal consolidation, economic reform, and improvement in the overall domestic political climate. The government continues to face difficulties securing political consensus to move forward on privatization. Tension between the President and Prime Minister remains the main obstacle to progress on reform.

The U.S. enjoys a strong exporter position with Lebanon, generally ranking as Lebanon's fourth or fifth-largest source of imported goods. More than 160 offices representing U.S. businesses currently operate in Lebanon. Since the lifting of the passport restriction in 1997 (see below), a number of large U.S. companies have opened branch or regional offices, including Microsoft, American Airlines, Arthur Andersen, Coca-Cola, FedEx, UPS, General Electric, Parsons Brinkerhoff, Cisco, Eli Lilly, and Pepsi Cola.

The foreign policy of Lebanon reflects its geographic location, the composition of its population, and its reliance on commerce and trade. Lebanon's foreign policy is heavily influenced by Syria. The framework for relations was first codified in May 1991, when Lebanon and Syria signed a treaty of mutual cooperation. This treaty came out of the Ta'if Agreement, which stipulated that "Lebanon is linked to Syria by distinctive ties deriving strength from kinship, history, and common interests." The Lebanese-Syria treaty calls for "coordination and cooperation between the two countries" that would serve the "interests of the two countries within the framework of sovereignty and independence of each." Numerous agreements on political, economic, security, and judicial affairs have followed over the years.




On May 23, 2000, the Israeli military carried out a total withdrawal of Israeli troops from the south and the Bekaa Valley, effectively ending 22 years of occupation. The SLA collapsed and about 6,000 SLA members and their families fled the country, although more than 3,000 had returned by November 2003. The military court tried all of the SLA operatives who remained in the country and the average sentence handed down was 1-year imprisonment. With the withdrawal of Israeli forces, many in Lebanon began calling for a review of the continued presence of Syrian troops, estimated in mid-2003 at approximately 16,000.



The United States seeks to maintain its traditionally close ties with Lebanon, and to help preserve its independence, sovereignty, national unity, and territorial integrity. The United States also supports the withdrawal of all non-Lebanese forces from Lebanon, including Syrian forces and Iranian elements, and the disarming and disbanding of all armed militias. The United States believes that a peaceful, prosperous, and stable Lebanon can make an important contribution to comprehensive peace in the Middle East.




Principal U.S. Embassy Officials
Ambassador—Jeffrey Feltman
Deputy Chief of Mission—Christopher Murray
Defense Attach�—LTC Robert K. Carnahan
USAID Director—Raouf Youssef
Political/Economic Chief—George Frederick
Consul—Amber Baskette
Management Officer—Barbara McCarthy
Public Affairs Officer—Juliet Wurr
Regional Security Officer—John Schilling
Economic/Commercial Officer—Jennifer Sublett


[This is a mobile copy of Lebanon (11/04)]

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