2. Content Overview
1. Country Profile
2. Political Situation
3. Domestic and Foreign Politics
4. Current Security Situation
3. 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.
Country Profile
4. 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
Political System
5. 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
• Shi’a Muslim
Domestic and Foreign Politics
6. • 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
Hezbollah
7. •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)
Current Security Situation
8. •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.
Current Security Situation
9. 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
US interest in region
