TheHeralding - Lebanon

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Lebanon
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Content Overview

1. Country Profile
2. Political Situation
3. Domestic and Foreign Politics
4. Current Security Situation

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Country Profile

• Demographics
• Mainly Muslims (54) and Christians (40)Major
  Ethnicity Arabs, Armenians, Kurds
• Geographic Location
• Syria (north, east) and Israel (south)
• Ruler
• Past relation with Israel
• Lebanon affected by aftermath of six-day war when
  Palestinians use Lebanon as a base for attacks on
  Israel (1967)
• Israel attacks after Hezbollah captures two IDF
  soldiers, leading to a 34-day war along the
  Israel-Lebanon border(2006)
• Was embroiled in a Civil War from 1975 1990.

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Political System

• Framework
• Seats in parliament were divided on a 6-to-5
  ratio of Christians to Muslims, until 1990 when
  the ratio changed to half and half.
• The top three positions in the ruling "troika"
  distributed as follows
• The President, a Maronite Christian.
• The Speaker of the Parliament, a Shi'a Muslim.
• The Prime Minister, a Sunni Muslim.
• The following came about as a result of the 1943
  National Pact, (which allocated political power
  on an essentially confessional system based on
  the 1932 census)
• Branches
• The political system is split into Legislative,
  Judicial and Executive branches with the
  Judicial branch being completely independent of
  the other two branches.
• Current Positions
• Still no President

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Domestic and Foreign Politics

• Friction between Political Parties
• Three primary issues are still causing frictions
  between parties
• 1. A pro-or anti-Syrian stance
• 2. The cooperation with the Special Tribunal for
  Lebanon
• 3. Disarmament of Hezbollah.
• Division of religious groups exist for top
  positions in politics, consisting
• Maronite Christian
• Sunni Muslim
• Shia Muslim

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Hezbollah

• Officially founded in 1985
• Shi'a Islamist militant group and political party
  based in Lebanon
• Current leader is SEC-GEN Hassan Nasrallah
• Conceived by Muslim clerics and funded by Iran
  following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982
• Primarily formed to offer resistance to the
  Israeli occupation
• Listed fully or partly as a terrorist
  organisations by certain countries
• Receives military training, weapons, and
  financial support from Iran, and political
  support from Syria

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Current Security Situation

• The latest conflict between Israel and Hezbollah
  was the 2006 Lebanon War
• 34-day military conflict in Lebanon and northern
  Israel
• Hezbollah paramilitary forces vs IDF
• Began when Hezbollah kidnapped two IDF soldiers
  during a cross-border raid
• Killed 1,300 Lebanese citizens (incl. combatants)
  and 165 Israelis (incl. soldiers)

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Current Security Situation

• Beginning Jul 2014, Hezbollah has sent
  intelligence analysts to Baghdad in support of
  the Iranian-led intervention in Iraq. In Mar
  2015, Hezbollah was reportedly sending 800 elite
  fighters to help recapture Mosul from ISIS.
• As of Sep 2014, unconfirmed reports put
  Hezbollah's missile arsenal at an estimated
  100,000 rockets and 5,000 long-range missile,
  covering all of Israel.

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US interest in region
Need for regional control In practice, U.S.
policymakers have sought to walk a line between
maintaining a neutral posture and marginalizing
those in Lebanon who are hostile to the United
States, its interests, and its allies.1 1
https//www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/R42816.pdf
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