Syrian occupation of Lebanon

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The Syrian occupation of Lebanon is one of several terms for the period 1976-2005 when Syria had a military presence in and significant control over Lebanon.^[1] Some dispute the term "occupation", especially since Syria originally entered the country at the request of the Lebanese government.

During the Lebanese Civil War, Lebanon requested Syrian assistance as an Arab peacekeeping force. The Arab League agreed to send a peacekeeping force mostly formed by Syrian troops. Initially Syria's mission was to protect the Christians; two years later, in 1978, Syria changed its position and sided with the PLO.

In the late 1980s, General Michel Aoun was appointed President of the Council of Ministers by President Amine Gemayel, a controversial move since Aoun was a Maronite Christian and the post was by unwritten convention reserved for a Sunni Muslim. Muslim ministers refused to serve in Aoun's government, which was not recognised by Syria. Two rival administrations were formed: a military one under Aoun in East Beirut and a civilian one under Selim el-Hoss based in West Beirut; the latter gained the support of the Syrians. Aoun opposed the Syrian presence in Lebanon, citing the 1982 UN Security Council Resolution 520.[1] The Syrian military remained in Lebanon; after a successful campaign against the Lebanese Forces militia who had controlled Beirut port, Aoun, now with massive popular support in his East Beirut enclave, declared a "War of Liberation" against the Syrian forces. Fighting began on 14 March 1989. Casualties among civilians on both sides from indiscriminate artillery bombardments across the front line were numerous. Aoun initially received a greater degree of international support than el-Hoss, but this ended abruptly with the American build-up for war with Iraq over Kuwait. Aoun had received considerable support from the Iraqi government, anxious to weaken the rival Baathist regime in Damascus; in return for Syrian support in the Kuwait war, the United States and Israel agreed to allow Syria to evict Aoun, and in October 1990 Syrian forces took the presidential palace at Baabda by storm. Aoun took refuge in the French embassy and was later exiled from Lebanon to France. Circumstances surrounding his exile are controversial; his apprehension and exile are variously attributed to Syrian forces, Israeli Defense Forces, Shii' militias, and the Lebanese Forces militia of Samir Geagea.

Syrian forces remained in Lebanon, exercising considerable influence over its government from 1990 to 2005.

After the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and the death of Hafez Al-Assad in 2000, the Syrian occupation faced fierce criticism and resistance from the Lebanese population. The occupation ended on 26 April 2005 after the Cedar Revolution that took place as a reaction to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on 14 February 2005.

[edit] Notes

^ Occupied from 1976:
- "Syria, a supporter of Hezbollah, has occupied Lebanon since 1976." Talbot, Stephen. "SYRIA/LEBANON: The Occupied/Occupied", PBS FRONTLINE/World, Dispatches from a small planet: Elections 2004. Retrieved Oct 27, 2006.
- "1979-1981 Syrian opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, launches guerrilla attacks and armed uprisings against the government to protest Syrian oppression of Palestinian peoples in occupied Lebanon." In depth Syria: Timeline, CBC News Online, October 12, 2005. Retrieved Oct 27, 2006.
- "Syria... occupied Lebanon for the last 30 years". Rice, Condoleezza, "Interview on NBC's Meet the Press with Tim Russert", August 6, 2006. Retrieved Oct 27, 2006.
- "Syria occupied Lebanon for 30 years." Rice, Condoleezza, "Interview With Israel Radio One", August 12, 2006. Retrieved Oct 27, 2006.
- "Hours after the 17 May agreement was signed - Draper's signature represented the Americans - Syria announced that Philip Habib, Reagan's senior negotiator in the Middle East, was no longer welcome in Damascus. For more than a day, all roads through the Syrian lines in the mountains above Beirut were closed. The implications of this were obvious: if Gemayel ratified the treaty with Israel, then he would have no influence in Syrian-occupied Lebanon." Fisk, Robert. Pity the Nation, Oxford University Press, Oct 1, 2001, p. 483. ISBN 0192801309
- "In October 1976 the various parties achieved a cease-fire in the civil war... This force was mainly Syrian in composition - 25,000 out of a total of 30,000; so that new arrangement amounted in effect to another form of Syrian occupation. The cumulative effects of these events was a drastic loss of Lebanese independence, and what amounted to a partition of the country between the Syrian-occupied north (the major part of Lebanese territory) and an area in the south where the Palestinians, Phalangists, and Israelies fought sporadically with one another." Bell, Philip M. H. The World Since 1945: An International History, Oxford University Press US, Jun 1, 2001, p. 409. ISBN 0340662360
- "...Syrian forces entered Lebanese territory in 1975 and incrementally spread the net of their military control and political occupation across the country...". Nisan, Mordechai. "The Syrian occupation of Lebanon", NATIV, Ariel Center for Policy Research, Volume Thirteen, Number 3 (74), June 2000.
- "The Syrian occupation of Lebanon began nearly a quarter-century ago... On October 13, 1990, as international attention was focused on the Kuwait crisis, Syrian military units forced their way into east Beirut, routed Lebanese Army troops, and ousted the last remnant of Lebanon's beleaguered constitutional government. This event completed a Syrian occupation that began over a decade earlier". Pipes, Daniel & Abdelnour, Ziad. "Ending Syria's Occupation of Lebanon: The U.S. Role", Middle East Forum, Report of the Lebanon Study Group, May 2000. Retrieved October 31, 2006.