Lebanese Civil War

The Lebanese Civil War (Arabic: الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon.

The religious diversity of the Lebanese people played a notable role in the lead-up to and during the conflict: Lebanese Christians and Lebanese Sunni Muslims comprised the majority in the coastal cities; Lebanese Shia Muslims were primarily based throughout southern Lebanon and in the Beqaa Valley in the east; and Druze and Christians populated the country's mountainous areas. At the time, the Lebanese government was under the influence of elites within the Maronite Christian community. The link between politics and religion was reinforced under the French Mandate from 1920 to 1943, and the country's parliamentary structure favoured a leading position for Lebanese Christians, who constituted the majority of the population. However, Lebanon's Muslims comprised a large minority and the influx of thousands of Palestinians—first in 1948 and again in 1967—contributed to Lebanon's demographic shift towards an eventual Muslim majority. Lebanon's Christian-dominated government had been facing increasing opposition from Muslims, pan-Arabists, and left-wing groups. The Cold War also exerted a disintegrative effect on the country, closely linked to the political polarization that preceded the 1958 Lebanese crisis. Christians mostly sided with the Western world while Muslims, pan-Arabists, and leftists mostly sided with Soviet-aligned Arab countries.

Fighting between Lebanese Christian militias and Palestinian insurgents, mainly from the Palestine Liberation Organization, began in 1975 and generated an alliance between the Palestinians and Lebanese Muslims, pan-Arabists, and leftists. The conflict deepened as foreign powers, namely Syria, Israel, and Iran, became involved and supported or fought alongside different factions. Over the course of the conflict, these alliances shifted rapidly and unpredictably. While much of the fighting took place between opposing religious and ideological factions, there was significant conflict within some faith communities, especially amongst both Christians and Shias. Peacekeeping forces, such as the Multinational Force in Lebanon and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, were stationed in Lebanon during this time.

In 1989, the Taif Agreement marked the beginning of the end for the fighting as a committee appointed by the Arab League began to formulate solutions to the conflict. In March 1991, the Parliament of Lebanon passed an amnesty law that pardoned all political crimes that had been perpetrated prior to the law's time of enactment. In May 1991, all of the armed factions that had been operating in Lebanon were dissolved, excluding Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shia Islamist militia. Though the Lebanese Armed Forces slowly began to rebuild as Lebanon's only major non-sectarian armed institution after the conflict, the federal government remained unable to challenge Hezbollah's armed strength. Religious tensions, especially between Shias and Sunnis, persisted across Lebanon since the formal end of the hostilities in 1990.