Country · LB
Lebanon
لبنان לבנון6 parties on file · 4 currently in government
Timeline · 26 events
Region timeline →-
Nawaf Salam becomes Prime Minister
Former ICJ President Nawaf Salam was named Prime Minister of Lebanon on 2025-02-08 and tasked with forming a reform-oriented cabinet.
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Joseph Aoun elected President of Lebanon
After a two-year presidential vacuum, Lebanese Armed Forces commander Joseph Aoun was elected President on 2025-01-09, ending the institutional impasse.
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Walid Jumblatt hands PSP leadership to his son Taymour
After leading the Progressive Socialist Party for 46 years, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt announced his resignation as party chief on 25 May 2023; at the PSP general conference in Ain Zhalta his son, MP Taymour Jumblatt (41), was elected unopposed and consecrated as PSP leader on 25 June 2023 — a dynastic transfer of the party, the Druze za'ama and the Mukhtara seat.
Show 23 earlier events (1980–2024)
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Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire
A US-mediated 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect on 2024-11-27, ending the year-long escalation. The agreement called for an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and Hezbollah movement north of the Litani river.
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Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire holds with intermittent violations
The November 2024 ceasefire required Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River, the Lebanese army to deploy to the south, and Israeli forces to gradually return to the 1948 line. Implementation has been partial and contested: Israel has retained five strategic positions inside Lebanon, conducted regular strikes against alleged Hezbollah reconstitution efforts, and intercepted weapons transfers. Hezbollah has not formally re-engaged but has not disarmed below the Litani either.
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Naim Qassem becomes Hezbollah Secretary-General
Hezbollah named long-time deputy Naim Qassem as its new Secretary-General on 2024-10-29, succeeding Hassan Nasrallah.
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Israeli ground invasion of southern Lebanon
Israeli forces began ground operations in southern Lebanon on 2024-10-01, escalating the year-long war with Hezbollah. Came after the September 2024 pager attacks and a sustained Israeli bombing campaign that killed much of Hezbollah's senior leadership. The November 2024 ceasefire formally paused the operations.
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Hassan Nasrallah killed in Israeli airstrike
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut on 2024-09-27. Nasrallah had led Hezbollah since 1992.
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Lebanon: Hassan Nasrallah killed in Israeli airstrike on Beirut
The Israeli air force destroyed Hezbollah's underground headquarters in Beirut's southern suburbs with a series of bunker-buster bombs, killing secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah and most of the senior military command alongside him. Nasrallah had led the party for 32 years. The strike came nine days after the pager attack and roughly a week of escalating Israeli strikes; ground operations into south Lebanon followed within days.
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Lebanon: Pager and walkie-talkie explosions across Hezbollah ranks
Across roughly twelve hours, thousands of pagers and then walkie-talkies issued to Hezbollah members and affiliates detonated simultaneously across Lebanon and parts of Syria. The devices had been sabotaged at the supply chain. At least 42 people were killed, including children, and thousands injured. Israel did not formally claim responsibility for weeks; the operation was attributed to a long-running Mossad supply-chain infiltration.
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Lebanon: former central-bank governor Salameh arrested on corruption charges
Riad Salameh, Lebanon's central-bank governor for three decades and architect of the Ponzi-like financial-engineering scheme that collapsed in 2019, was arrested in September 2024 on domestic corruption and money-laundering charges after years of international warrants. He had spent the post-2019 collapse insulated by political protection in Lebanon; the arrest, under the Mikati caretaker government's outgoing months, was widely seen as positioning for the post-presidential-election political reset.
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Israel-Lebanon maritime border agreement
Lebanon and Israel signed a US-mediated agreement demarcating their maritime border on 2022-10-27, resolving a long-standing dispute over offshore gas fields. The agreement was reached despite the two countries technically being in a state of war; Hezbollah explicitly did not oppose it.
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Saad Hariri suspends his political career and boycotts the 2022 vote
On 24 January 2022 Saad Hariri announced he was suspending his role in politics and that his Future Movement would not contest the May 2022 parliamentary election — a stunning withdrawal by the figurehead of Lebanon's Sunni establishment, driven by Saudi abandonment and the country's financial collapse. His exit left a vacuum in Sunni leadership and reshaped the post-2022 parliament.
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Billionaire Mikati becomes PM amid Lebanon's collapse
Najib Mikati — by Forbes the richest man in Lebanon ($2.8bn) and a three-time premier — formed a government on 10 September 2021 amid the country's historic financial meltdown, then governed in a caretaker capacity through the 2024 war with Israel and even exercised presidential powers during the 2022–2025 vacancy. A consummate figure of the post-war establishment, he is widely blamed for the elite paralysis behind Lebanon's collapse.
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US Treasury sanctions FPM leader Gebran Bassil for corruption
On 6 November 2020 the US Treasury's OFAC designated Gebran Bassil — FPM president, MP, and former foreign, energy and telecommunications minister (Aoun's son-in-law) — under the Global Magnitsky program "for his role in corruption in Lebanon," the first Magnitsky designation in Lebanon. Treasury cited steering of government funds to associates via front companies and purchase of political influence. Bassil denied wrongdoing; the FPM dismissed the move as political pressure tied to its alliance with Hezbollah.
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Beirut port explosion
2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate detonated at Beirut's port on 2020-08-04, killing over 200 people and devastating much of the city. The blast accelerated Lebanon's financial collapse and intensified demands for accountability that have remained unmet six years on; the formal investigation has been repeatedly obstructed by Hezbollah and political establishment figures.
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Lebanese October Revolution begins
Mass anti-sectarian protests across Lebanon began on 2019-10-17 after a proposed WhatsApp tax, demanding the resignation of the entire political class. The "thawra" forced PM Saad Hariri's resignation but failed to break the sectarian power-sharing system.
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Saad Hariri's bizarre resignation from Riyadh
On 4 November 2017 Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced his resignation in a televised statement from Saudi Arabia, denouncing Iran and Hezbollah and citing assassination fears. Lebanese officials — and Hariri's own conduct — pointed to Saudi coercion: reports said his phone was seized and he was held for hours and slapped. President Aoun refused to accept the resignation; after French and international intervention Hariri returned home and rescinded it on 5 December, a humiliating exposure of Gulf leverage over Lebanese politics.
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FPM founder Michel Aoun elected President of Lebanon, ending a 29-month vacancy
On 31 October 2016, on its 46th attempt to reach quorum, parliament elected FPM founder Michel Aoun president with 83 of 127 votes, ending a presidential vacancy that had lasted since May 2014. His election followed the January 2016 Maarab Agreement reconciling the FPM with the rival Lebanese Forces, and was decisively backed by Hezbollah (FPM's ally since the 2006 Mar Mikhael understanding) as well as the Future Movement and others. Aoun served until 30 October 2022.
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Geagea freed under amnesty after the Cedar Revolution
On 26 July 2005, months after the anti-Syrian March 14 bloc won parliament in the wake of Rafik Hariri's assassination and the Syrian withdrawal, parliament granted Samir Geagea an amnesty and freed him after 11 years in jail. He resumed leadership of the Lebanese Forces, which became a principal Christian party of the March 14 camp.
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Rafik Hariri assassinated, triggering the Cedar Revolution
On 14 February 2005 a massive truck bomb killed former PM Rafik Hariri and 21 others on the Beirut seafront. Widely blamed on the Syrian-Hezbollah security order (a UN tribunal later convicted a Hezbollah member), the assassination ignited the "Cedar Revolution," forcing Syria to withdraw its troops after nearly three decades and realigning Lebanese politics into the rival March 14 and March 8 camps.
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Geagea jailed — the only warlord imprisoned after Lebanon's civil war
On 21 April 1994 Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea was arrested and subsequently sentenced to multiple life terms for civil-war-era killings and a church bombing, and for "maintaining a militia in the guise of a political party." Though a 1991 amnesty had covered all other militia chiefs, Geagea — a leading opponent of the Syrian-dominated order — was singled out, then held for over 11 years in solitary confinement in an underground cell beneath the Defense Ministry.
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Billionaire Rafik Hariri becomes PM and rebuilds postwar Lebanon
Self-made construction billionaire Rafik Hariri became prime minister of Lebanon in October 1992 (serving 1992–1998 and 2000–2004), driving the reconstruction of Beirut's war-shattered centre through the Solidere company and large-scale borrowing. His tenure rebuilt the country physically but loaded it with the public debt that underlies Lebanon's later financial collapse, and was conducted under Syrian tutelage he increasingly resisted.
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Berri becomes parliament speaker — a post he never relinquishes
Nabih Berri was first elected Speaker of Lebanon's Parliament in 1992 and has held the post continuously ever since — the Arab world's longest-serving parliament speaker. Controlling the legislative agenda and a vast Shia patronage network, he has been a constant of the post-war sectarian "Troika" system, repeatedly able to convene or freeze parliament, including blocking presidential elections during the 2014–2016 and 2022–2024 vacancies.
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Nasrallah becomes Hezbollah's leader at 32
In February 1992, after Israel assassinated Hezbollah secretary-general Abbas al-Musawi, the 32-year-old cleric Hassan Nasrallah was chosen to lead the movement. Over the next three decades he built Hezbollah into the most powerful military and political force in Lebanon and Iran's key regional ally, fighting Israel to a standstill in the 2006 war and intervening decisively in Syria.
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Berri takes over the Amal Movement
In 1980, after the 1978 disappearance of Amal's founder Imam Musa al-Sadr, Nabih Berri assumed leadership of the Shia Amal Movement and turned it into one of the most powerful militias of the Lebanese Civil War — including the bloody "War of the Camps" against Palestinian factions and fierce clashes with the rising Hezbollah in the late 1980s.
Marquee bills
All bills →Compass · Lebanon
Country mean — Economic -0.1, Social -2.4
Ringed dots are parties currently in government. See the full regional compass · hand-coded estimates; methodology.
Current leadership · grouped by party
19 political figures across 7 groups. Coalition parties first, then opposition, then unaffiliated.
Parties
- Amal Movement حركة أمل
Led by · Nabih Berri
Shia political and paramilitary movement founded by Musa al-Sadr. Long-standing partner of Hezbollah and the party of Speaker Nabih Berri.
- Free Patriotic Movement التيار الوطني الحر
Led by · Gebran Bassil
Christian-rooted political movement founded by Michel Aoun; one of the two parties whose name contains the Arabic word tayyar.
- Hezbollah حزب الله
Led by · Naim Qassem
Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary organization, founded during the Lebanese civil war with Iranian support.
- Kataeb Party حزب الكتائب
Led by · Samy Gemayel
Christian-rooted political party historically known as the Phalange.
- Lebanese Forces القوات اللبنانية
Led by · Samir Geagea
Christian-rooted political party led by Samir Geagea, originally a militia formed during the civil war.
- Progressive Socialist Party الحزب التقدمي الاشتراكي
Led by · Taymour Jumblatt
Druze-rooted social-democratic party founded by Kamal Jumblatt and currently led by his son Walid.
Source documents · 47
All docs →- al-Manar [Hezbollah media organ] — "the enemy entity"/south Lebanon framing, Telegram, 2026-06-21 20 words
- al-Manar [Hezbollah media organ] — Gaza "martyrs/occupation" framing, Telegram, 2026-06-21 13 words
- Nabih Berri (Speaker of Parliament; leader of the Amal Movement) — statement to NBN guaranteeing "the resistance's" full, comprehensive and immediate commitment to a ceasefire if a clear formula is reached, while asking who will compel Israel to halt its aggression (reported by Lebanon Debate, 31 May 2026). 55 words
- Mohammed Raad (head of Hezbollah's "Loyalty to the Resistance" parliamentary bloc) — appeal to "the people of the Resistance" (Al-Manar, post-2024 ceasefire): the resistance's weapon is "the real barrier preventing the entrenchment and hegemony of the occupation"; the fight is a "defensive" national duty; and neither an alliance with America nor normalization with Israel will protect the region's peoples and sovereignty. 58 words
- Nawaf Salam (Prime Minister of Lebanon from Feb 2025; former ICJ president) — Euronews interview, 4 Feb 2026: the state's monopoly on arms and restoring state authority — "the army is our main tool to enforce our goal to have the monopoly over arms and to restore state authority over all the Lebanese territory" — plus condemning Israel's occupation of the south. The reformist / state-sovereignty pole. 61 words
- Samir Geagea (leader, Lebanese Forces) — declared positions on decentralization and democracy, from a 2026 "Pen Cast" podcast interview (reported by SyriacPress): Lebanon's core problem is a plural society governed by an overly centralized state, so he advocates "decentralization in its broadest sense"; he defines democracy as "the right of every group to choose its own representatives." 134 words
Briefs from Lebanon
Hand-written political-science mini-papers involving Lebanon parties. 5 briefs on file.
- Free Patriotic Movement vs. Kataeb Party LB Maronite right against Aoun's Christian-Hezbollah pivot. Kataeb's civil-war Christian-right legacy against FPM's alliance with Hezbollah. The Christian Lebanese pair that doesn't include the Lebanese Forces.
- Free Patriotic Movement vs. Lebanese Forces LB The Christian Lebanese rift. Aoun's FPM-Hezbollah alliance against Geagea's Lebanese Forces opposition. The same Maronite political constituency split into two pro-state and anti-Hezbollah camps.
- Hezbollah vs. Amal Movement LB The Shia Lebanese pair. The Khomeinist armed party-state against the secular-nationalist legacy movement. Adversaries in the 1980s, allies since the early 2000s.
- Hezbollah vs. Hamas PS The axis of resistance, by sect. Iranian-backed Shia Islamist party-army against Muslim Brotherhood-rooted Sunni Islamist resistance movement. Allies against the same adversary, doctrinally distinct in almost every other respect.
- Hezbollah vs. Lebanese Forces LB Lebanon's sharpest confessional rivalry. Hezbollah's Shia armed party-state vs the Lebanese Forces' Christian-right legacy of the civil war.
How to cite
Each record carries a retrieval date because the dataset is live — individual entries update as verification deepens. Use the per-record citation when referencing this specific profile; use the dataset citation below when referencing the project as a whole.
In-text: (Gara, 2026)
Per-record citation
APA 7Reference list · academic default
Gara, T. (2026). Lebanon [Country profile]. Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Retrieved August 5, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/c/LB
Chicago author-dateCommon in political-science journals
Gara, Tarek. 2026. "Lebanon." Country profile, Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Accessed August 5, 2026. https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/c/LB.
BibTeXFor LaTeX / Zotero / reference managers
@misc{tayyar-country-lb,
title = {{Lebanon}},
author = {Gara, Tarek},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset},
type = {Country profile},
url = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/c/LB},
urldate = {2026-08-05},
note = {First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.}
} Dataset / working-paper citation
If you're citing Tayyar as a project rather than this individual record.
APA 7Preprint
Gara, T. (2026). Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset [Preprint]. Retrieved August 5, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper
BibTeXPreprint
@unpublished{tayyar-preprint,
title = {{Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset}},
author = {Gara, Tarek},
year = {2026},
type = {Preprint},
url = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper},
urldate = {2026-08-05},
note = {Living document, regenerated from the live dataset on page load.}
} First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.