LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Lebanon
built 200 days ago
Until the economy was almost completely destroyed by the civil strife that rent the country from 1975 to 1990, Lebanon was long the distribution center for the Middle East, and commerce was its major industry. Beirut, a free port, was the region’s financial and commercial hub. Throughout the 1980s the commercial and industrial life of Lebanon was in severe disarray, but by the 1990s the economy had at least partially revived, although the Israel invasion and air attacks of 2006 were a severe setback. Banking, insurance, food processing, and the manufacture of textiles, chemicals, jewelry, and wood and furniture products are now important. Oil refining and metal fabricating are ... important industries. Other significant sources of income have been a revived tourism industry, remittances from Lebanese working abroad, and international aid.
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Lebanon is a parliamentary democracy in which the people constitutionally have the right to change their government. However, from the mid-1970s until the parliamentary elections in 1992, civil war precluded the effective exercise of political rights. According to the constitution, direct elections must be held for the parliament every 4 years. Parliament, in turn, is tasked to elect a new president every 6 years. A presidential election scheduled for the autumn of 2004 was pre-empted by a parliamentary vote to extend the sitting President's term in office by 3 years. The president and parliament choose the prime minister.
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Lebanon's ethnic and religions diversity has had an enormous impact on its governmental system. Traditionally the president of the country is a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament a Shiite Muslim. The country is governed under the constitution of 1926 as amended. Under the constitution, the president, who is the head of state and wields real power, is elected by the legislature for a six-year term and cannot serve consecutive terms. The government is headed by the prime minister, who is appointed by the president. The unicameral legislature consists of the 128-seat National Assembly, whose members are elected by popular vote on the basis of sectarian proportional representation for four-year terms.
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Lebanon's ethnic and religions diversity has had an enormous impact on its governmental system. Traditionally the president of the country is a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament a Shiite Muslim. The sects are ... represented in the legislature, cabinet, and civil service. The country is governed under a 1926 constitution with later amendments. The unicameral legislature (the National Assembly) has 128 members, half Christian and half Muslim, and is elected every four years by universal adult suffrage. Under the constitution, the president, who appoints the prime minister and wields real power, is elected by the legislature for a six-year term and cannot serve consecutive terms.
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Lebanon started 2006 with political bickering between the majority Future Movement, headed by Saad al-Hariri and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, on one hand and Lebanese Pres. Gen. Émile Lahoud and Gen. Michel Aoun, who headed the Christian Free Patriotic Movement, on the other. The latter reached an understanding with the militant Hezbollah (“Party of God”), headed by Hassan Nasrallah (see Biographies), which enjoyed good relations with Iran and Syria. The Future Movement wanted to rebuild relations with Syria on a new foundation of equality, but Lahoud tended to be in total agreement with Syrian policies affecting Lebanon and beyond. Another area of discord was the speed at which the government should move to approve the appointment of an international tribunal made up of Lebanese and foreign judges to adjudicate the assassination in 2005 of former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. Political life came to a standstill when Hezbollah and Amal (both Shi'ite movements) members resigned from the cabinet.
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Lebanon, like most Arab states, does not recognize Israel, with which it has been technically at war since Israel's establishment. Lebanon participated in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and despite the 1948 Lebanon-Israel armistice, Lebanon's lack of control over the border region resulted in repeated border hostilities, initiated mainly by Palestinian exile groups from 1968 to 1982 and later by Hezbollah. These attacks led to Israeli counterattacks, including a 1978 invasion, a 1982 invasion and occupation which ended in 2000, and the 2006 war. Lebanon did not participate in the 1967 or 1973 Arab-Israeli wars, nor in the 1991 Gulf War. The success of the latter created new opportunities for Middle East peacemaking. In October 1991, under the sponsorship of the United States and the then-Soviet Union, Middle East peace talks were held in Madrid, Spain, where Israel and a majority of its Arab neighbors conducted direct bilateral negotiations to seek a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace based on UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 (and 425 on Lebanon) and the concept of "land for peace." Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and representatives of the Palestinians continued negotiating until the Oslo interim peace accords were concluded between Israel and the Palestinians in September 1993 and Jordan and Israel signed an agreement in October 1994.
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