Lebanon Examiner

Nilay Chaturvedi
Nov 3 · 4 min read

One of the poorest and smallest middle eastern nation is in grip of massive protests and political-social turmoil, but what drove Lebanon to this.

Lebanese national flag

Recently Saad Hariri resigned from his post of Prime Minister of Lebanon then went back on his decision and then again after two weeks resigned. It’s tough to appreciate the humor in this unless you are familiar with the gargantuan complexity (EVEN BY MIDDLE EASTERN STANDARDS) that is Lebanese politics. But to understand the current Lebanese situation we have to go back to 1975, the year of the start of Lebanese civil war, a struggle that fractured the country divided communities and killed 120,000 people. Lebanese politics basically has 3 mainstays — Shias — Sunnis and Christians. The division between the Muslim Arabs and Christians had been spewing before 1975 since after the first world war. The French which had the Lebanese mandate wanted to protect the rights of maronite Christians and pushed for their greater hegemony and autonomy in Lebanese politics. The Muslim Arabs were discontented and dissatisfied with this situation. But the real death blow to secularism of Lebanon if there was one came in 1948 with the creation of another nation in Middle East — Israel.

SAAD HARIRI Resigning as Prime Minister

In the aftermath of the birth of Jewish state, thousands of Palestinians fled into Lebanon and this shifted the demographic balance and gave wind to the already simmering situation. Jumping forward again, for 15 years the maronite Christians went against the PLO (PALESTINE LIBERATION ORG.) which was supported by Arabs and Lebanese Muslims. And in between Lebanon was also invaded by Israel.

1989 — After the taif agreement which was signed in Saudi Arabia, the militias around Lebanon were seemingly dissolved, but one group stood its ground and sustained itself — Hezbollah which will become a major player in the coming years, is a Shia political organization with a very active military wing was supported by Iran in a country which is majority Sunni. The man who emerged from this to lead his country was Rafik Hariri Saad Hariri’s father.

Jumping forward again to 2003 when prime minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated, this is the point where the modern day Lebanese political fracture really widens. 2 political groups emerged from this -:

The March 14 alliance — which believes that Syria and Hezbollah were behind the assassination and headed by Saad Hariri and supported by Saudi Arabia

March 8 alliance which does not believe this headed by Michel aoun and supported by Iran.

HEZBOLLAH Military Wing

Both the groups follow the rhetoric of their foreign backers and although this hasn’t lead to an all out proxy war the situation in Lebanon is far from normal. But things actually looked a bit bright when Michel Aoun and Saad Hariri actually came together to form a government, they even agreed on a state budget the first one in 12 years. But coming back to where we started Saad Hariri who is a Saudi citizen visits Saudi Arabia and resigns on Saudi national channel — which by most standards is forced by the Saudis. Back in Lebanon Aoun government doesn’t accept his resignation. Saad Hariri goes back to Lebanon rescinds on his resignation and after two weeks of massive protest resigns again.

But the importance of this tiny nation are many fold, outside Iran Lebanon as the most dominant Shia political faction and Iran with its support to Hezbollah and Bashar al Assad in Syria is trying to create a friendship bridge in middle east , which in Arab world is known and feared as Shiite crescent. Lebanon also acts as a microcosm as — Syria, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, U.S, Iran, Iraq, Saudis all have interests here. The way foes Lebanon that’s where goes Middle East.

The question to be answered here is that what should be India’s role in the reshaping of Lebanon and its own interest lie where?

But this has gotten a bit long and these days people’s attention span isn’t much so that analysis some other day.

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