Country profilesLebanon

Humanitarian profile

Lebanon still bears the scars of the 1975-90 civil war, which drew in other Middle Eastern actors - particularly Syria, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation - and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. A resurgence of hostilities in 2006, when Israel launched a major military campaign against the Lebanon-based armed group Hezbollah, put an end to the relative stability the small, mountainous country had enjoyed since the end of the civil war and once again threatened its delicate sectarian balance. Lebanon hosts hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in camps where conditions are described as dire.

Country snapshot

Lebanon, a small country carved out of the ruins of the Ottoman empire, has suffered more than its fair share of knocks in its short history. Sandwiched between a suspicious Israel and big-brother Syria, its fate has often been determined by forces outside its borders.

During its darkest period, the multifaceted 1975-1990 civil war, its divided capital Beirut was no longer known as the "Paris of the Middle East" but as a place of Western hostage-taking, brutality and the suffering of civilians.

Now back on its feet, it is rebuilding vital infrastructure destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in 2006 and enjoying political stability after a long political crisis sparked by the assassination of a former prime minister.

The pro-Western alliance that controls parliament and its Syrian-backed opponents - bitter enough foes that in recent years the spectre loomed of a fresh civil war - agreed on a president and national unity government in 2008 and political tensions have diminished since then. Rebuilding the economy is a priority.

Lebanon's population is divided between various Christian and Muslim groups. Commerce has always been a strength and Lebanese traders can be found around the globe, even in remote parts of Africa.

Government

Seats in the assembly, which is elected every four years, are divided equally between Muslims and Christians. To ensure sectarian balance, Lebanon has always had a complex political system that includes an agreement that the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament a Shi'ite Muslim.

The president usually serves for six years and cannot serve two terms in a row. He appoints the prime minister in consultation with parliament.

Economy

Lebanon is a small country with some 4 million people, with average annual earnings of just over $6,000, a strong tradition of commerce and free markets. Services, including banking and commerce, are the main industries and food and tobacco the main exports. Foreign investment is encouraged but is hampered by corruption and bureaucracy.

Its former heyday as the Middle East's trading and banking hub is a distant memory, succeeded by decades of war and crisis that ravaged the country. The civil war halved national output.

Lebanon has resumed an economic revival plan interrupted by the 2006 conflict and is making progress despite the global recession, with huge influxes of deposits and tourists in recent years and strong economic growth.

Much hope is once again being put in tourism. Before the civil war, Lebanon was a popular holiday destination, particularly from other parts of the Middle East, trading on the fact you could ski in the morning, sunbathe in the afternoon and enjoy Beirut's cosmopolitan sophistication by night.

Destruction during the civil war and Israeli strikes, which destroyed an estimated $3.6 billion worth of infrastructure in 2006, have left it highly dependent on foreign aid and on high levels of loans. It is one of the most heavily indebted states in the world. Donors met in Paris in 2007 and pledged over $7.5 billion in aid, tied to progress on fiscal reform and privatisation.

History

Two decades after it ended, Lebanon is still associated mainly with the 1975-90 civil war that seemed like a wider Middle East conflict, with Syrian, Palestinian, Western and Israeli camps plotting behind the scenes.

More recently, in February 2005, a Beirut car bomb killed pro-Western politician Rafik al-Hariri, who had quit as premier a few months earlier during a common period of political stalemate. His supporters blamed Syria and took to the streets, changing the political atmosphere and indirectly leading to the withdrawal of Syrian troops.

The other main event of the last decade was a brief but devastating conflict with Israel in 2006.

Lebanon's creation was determined by religion. When France took over part of the old Ottoman province of Syria after World War One to run it for the League of Nations, it carved out for separate administration an area where Christians could dominate - Lebanon.

Lebanon gained independence in 1943 and within a few years found itself between a large neighbour Syria, which considered it part of its sphere of influence, and the new Jewish state of Israel to the south - whose creation sent Palestinian refugees flooding into Lebanon.

Palestinians used Lebanon as a base for activities against Israel after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, bringing the country into friction with Israel in the years ahead, polarising opinion and, along with Israeli attacks inside Lebanon, weakening the government.

Clashes between Christian militia and Palestinians triggered civil war in 1975. More than 150,000 people died in 15 years of fighting. Beirut was split along the "Green Line" into Christian and Muslim halves. The next year Syrian troops moved in and stayed until 2005.

Israeli troops invaded in 1978 and again in 1982, occupying Muslim West Beirut, where over three days Christian militia allies killed Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. The Israelis withdrew to a southern buffer zone, where they stayed until 2000.

International peacekeepers arrived but in 1983, 241 U.S. marines and 56 French paratroopers were killed by two Beirut bombs claimed by militant Shia groups.

Rival Christian and Muslim governments emerged until in 1989 the National Assembly endorsed a reconciliation agreement and the civil war ended the next year. By 1991 all Western hostages held by Shia groups, some of them for years, were released.

Lebanon made progress in the years that followed despite continued friction over the Syrian presence and Israeli attacks on Hezbollah and Palestinian targets.

However, Hariri's assassination in 2005 brought tensions over Syria to a head, with mass protests toppling the government. Syria denied involvement but withdrew its troops.

In 2006 Israel launched air and sea attacks on Lebanon, and its troops re-entered the south, after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers. More than 1,000 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 159 Israelis, mostly soldiers, died in a month of fighting.

Political assassinations and clashes between Hezbollah and pro-government factions raised fears of a descent into civil war again but the country came back from the brink.

A pro-Western alliance - called March 14 after the mass demonstrations that followed Hariri's killing - won elections in 2009. Hariri's son, Saad al-Hariri, became prime minister and formed a new unity government. The March 14 alliance won 71 of 128 seats to 57 seats for the rival March 8 alliance that includes the Islamic party Hezbollah ("Party of God" in Arabic), which the United States considers a terrorist organisation.

In 2008, parliament chose armed forces chief Michel Suleiman, a unifying figure, as president, after a six-month political vacuum that had raised fears of renewed civil war.

Lebanon and Syria established diplomatic relations for the first time.

No one has yet been tried for Hariri's killing.

Still unresolved in Lebanon is the presence of Hezbollah as an independent militia under no state control.

Legal snapshot

Lebanon's legal system mixes Ottoman law, canon law, Napoleonic code and civil law. There is no judicial review of legislation.

The country has not accepted compulsory International Court of Justice

jurisdiction, and does not recognise the authority of the International Criminal Court.

Upper authorities include courts of cassation, for civil, commercial and criminal cases, the Constitutional Council to rule on the constitutionality of laws, and the Supreme Council that hears charges against the president and prime minister.

Lebanon ranked 130th out of 180 countries in Transparency International's 2009 index measuring perceived levels of public-sector corruption (1st position is perceived as least corrupt). It got an overall 'very weak' rating from U.S.-based non-governmental organisation Global Integrity in its report measuring anti-corruption measures, government accountability and civic freedoms.

Business is also hampered by red tape, corruption, tariffs, archaic legislation and weak intellectual property rights.

Lebanon was the first Arab country to allow private broadcasters, but the government determines who may broadcast news. Press freedom body Reporters Without Borders said the media were freer than in any other Arab country but faced "political and judicial machinations".