In 2011, Lebanon had a population estimated at around 4.5 million people. Its economy was largely reliant on its export of agricultural products such as olives and citrus fruits, petroleum products and banking services. Foreign relations in 2011 were marked by strong ties to the United States, France, and other countries throughout the Middle East. Politically, the country was a parliamentary republic ruled by President Michel Suleiman since 2008. The president was assisted by his cabinet and the Parliament which is composed of 128 members elected for four-year terms. In 2011, Lebanon held its general election in June that year and re-elected President Michel Suleiman with nearly 80% of votes cast. See mathgeneral for Lebanon in the year of 2017.
Yearbook 2011
Lebanon. According to Countryaah official site, the country’s unifying government fell on January 12 after the Shiite Hizbullah movement and its allies had left the coalition. Hizbullah had demanded that Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri break the cooperation with the UN tribunal that investigated the murder of his father, the former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri, in 2005. Eleven ministers, all Shi’ites or Maronites, resigned. al-Hariri tried to remain, but after a few weeks, Hizbullah nominated the Sunni Muslim telecommunist and parliamentarian Najib Mikati as his successor. The Prime Minister is supposed to be a Sunni Muslim, while the President is a Christian and the President is a Shiite Muslim. Visit ABBREVIATIONFINDER for the acronym of LBN that stands for the country of Lebanon.
Mikati was supported by 68 of the 128 MPs. The following months demonstrated large crowds in the capital Beirut, some days against Hizbullah, other days for Hizbullah and other days against the country’s entire faith-based political system. Only in June was Mikati able to form a government. Of the 30 ministers, 18 belonged to the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance, the other twelve had been nominated by Mikati himself, by President Michel S邦leiman or by drus leader Walid Jumblatt.
The UN tribunal that investigated al-Hariri’s murder brought a first charge in January, and the arrest warrant was handed over to the Lebanese police in June. Four Hizbullah members were wanted, the best known of them being Mustafa Badreddine, who served a prison sentence for terrorist crimes in Kuwait in the 1980s. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah dismissed the charge as an Israeli conspiracy, saying none of the suspects would be arrested. The prosecution was largely based on evidence in the form of documented mobile communication between the defendants. None of the wanted had been arrested in November, and the tribunal was considering bringing them to trial in their absence.
Seven Estonian bicycle tourists who were kidnapped in Beka Valley in March were released in July. The kidnappers, who belonged to the Haraket al-Nahda Wal-Islah group (‘The Movement for Renewal and Reform’), had demanded a ransom, but it was unclear if any were paid.
No ceasefire
In the three weeks leading up to the UN resolution on August 11, Israel had tried in vain to occupy villages in southern Lebanon, but had been repeatedly rejected. In a final attempt to carry out its occupation of southern Lebanon without being thrown out again, Israel therefore sent another 30,000 soldiers into Lebanon 4 hours after the resolution was adopted and 48 hours before the fighting was to cease. Israel has declared that they will clean southern Lebanon for Hezbollah positions over the next few months. Hezbollah has also stated that the organization is continuing its military activity to Israel is out of Lebanon. However, as long as Israel refuses to bomb the Lebanese civilian population, Hezbollah also refrains from ejecting rockets into Israel. The ceasefire is therefore extremely fragile,
Editor Rami Khouri of the Beirut newspaper The Daily Star wrote on July 19:
Of the many dimensions of Israel’s current war against the Palestinians and Lebanese, the most crucial in my view is how it will affect the Arab public’s attitude to Israel in the longer term. I see three crucial trends coming through here: A growing fearlessness among ordinary Arabs towards Israel’s military power; a determined and continued search for more effective means of resistance against Israel’s occupation and repression of the Palestinians; and a growing reluctance towards the Arab world power elites, who have virtually all silently chosen to consent to the Israeli-American dictates.
.. In the Middle East, peace and tranquility will require three things: Arabs and Israelis must be treated as equal parties in every respect; national and international legal principles must guide the actions of all governments and political actors; the fundamental conflict between Palestine and Israel must be resolved in a fair, equitable and sustainable manner.
.. Protecting Israel has long been the primary focus and goal of Western diplomacy, which is also the reason for the same diplomat’s defeat. For decades, Israel has now established buffer zones, occupation zones, red lines, blue lines, green lines, no go zones, military zones, burnt ground zones and all sorts of other conceivable zones between itself and the Arabs, which continue to fight its occupation and settler colonialism – and all failed, and here is the explanation: Protecting the Israelis while leaving the Arabs to a fate of humiliation, occupation, humiliation and submission under Israeli-American dictates can only result in the same Arabs will regroup in new ways, devise new resistance strategies, and come back one day to fight for their country, their human dignity,
.. Three Arab parties have so far developed missiles of various kinds: Iraq, Hamas and Hezbollah have all fired rockets and missiles against Israel, which has rendered the concept of buffer zones militarily outdated and politically irrelevant. New buffer zones introduced by the international community to protect Israel, which just makes the intense Arab gnawing grow even more inflamed, will only result in the next generation of young Arab men and women exhibiting even greater willpower to develop the right ones means by which they can turn back into a beautiful day in ways we can hardly guess today.
.. In Israel’s firm will to protect itself and the equally relentless Arab will to strike again, we have the elements of eternal war or – for those who may eventually have a will for justice – for a new opening for a diplomatic solution that can meet the legitimate rights of both sides.
The Daily Star