Since 2005, 2006

Serge Brammertz replaces Detlev Mehlis as head of the UN Hariri inquiry.
The Belgian prosecutor took charge of the international inquiry into Rafic Hariri's assassination, as Kofi Annan had requested.

Tuesday, 17 January 2006

From the books

Thousands protest at the US embassy against American interference.
The demonstration in front of the US embassy was peaceful.

Thursday, 2 February 2006

From the books

The Shiite ministers return to the cabinet.
Their boycott, begun after Tueni's assassination, ended after some seven weeks.

Sources differ: Abirached's dates imply a boycott of about seven weeks; Picard's chapter speaks of several months.

Sunday, 5 February 2006

From the books

Protesters attack the Danish consulate in Achrafieh.
Cars, shops and building entrances in Achrafieh, a Christian district, were wrecked when hundreds of protesters, furious at the Danish cartoons of the Prophet, tried to storm Denmark's consulate there. For Picard, the protests revived Christian fears of an 'Islamist' threat.

Monday, 6 February 2006

From the books

Michel Aoun and Hassan Nasrallah sign their memorandum of understanding.
At the church of Mar Mikhael, on the old Chiyah–Ain al-Rummaneh demarcation line, Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah signed a memorandum of understanding covering the electoral law, Hezbollah's weapons and relations with Syria. The alliance lasted until the 2020 crisis.

Sources differ: 6 February in three sources against 5 February in the introduction to 33 jours. The church is placed 'in the southern suburb' by de Clerck & Malsagne and 'on the old demarcation line' by Mermier & Picard.

Tuesday, 14 February 2006

From the books

Hundreds of thousands mark the first anniversary of Hariri's death.
On Martyrs' Square, Saad Hariri spoke of national unity.

Thursday, 2 March 2006

From the books

The National Dialogue among community leaders opens.
Community leaders, some former warlords, opened a National Dialogue on Syria, militia disarmament and President Lahoud's fate.

Tuesday, 14 March 2006

From the books

The National Dialogue agrees on three points.
The accord left Hezbollah's arms and the Israeli border aside, but the leaders agreed that Lebanon would deal with Syria as an equal, accept no armed Palestinian presence and regard the Shebaa Farms as Lebanese.

Wednesday, 29 March 2006

From the books

UN Resolution 1664.
Part of the series of resolutions leading to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Monday, 10 April 2006

From the books

Security services announce arrests over a plot against Hassan Nasrallah.
Lebanese security services said they had arrested nine people, eight Lebanese and one Palestinian, over a plot against Hassan Nasrallah.

Wednesday, 17 May 2006

From the books

UN Resolution 1680 urges Syria to delimit the border and open diplomatic relations.
Syria was strongly urged to open full diplomatic ties with Lebanon and delimit the border, chiefly where it was unclear or contested.

Sources differ: Picard's chapter in 33 jours (p. 84) dates 1680 to 2005, evidently a slip.

Sunday, 28 May 2006

From the books

Rockets on northern Israel bring the heaviest Israeli strikes since 2000.
Rockets fired at an air base near Safad, in northern Israel, brought Israel's most violent response since its 2000 withdrawal: aircraft struck the Aita al-Shaab area and hillsides by Khiam and Chakra in the border zone.

Sources differ: Abirached attributes the rockets to Hezbollah; Khayat says nobody claimed them.

Monday, 10 July 2006

From the books

Metropolis art cinema opens in Hamra.
Hamra, where most of the pre-war cinemas still stood disused, gained an art-house cinema, Metropolis, inside the Theatre de la Ville on 10 July, two days before the war began.

Wednesday, 12 July 2006

From the books

Hezbollah captures two Israeli soldiers; Israel launches a war on Lebanon.
Hezbollah fighters attacked an Israeli patrol across the border on the morning of 12 July and took two soldiers, whom the party offered to trade for Arab prisoners. Dozens of Israeli air raids on the South followed; strikes on the airport, bridges and roads and an air and sea blockade came next. The war's day-by-day record is in 111101's July 2006 archive (/facts/history/july2006/).

Sources differ: Abirached quotes Hezbollah's announcement of the capture 'around 9.05'; Harel & Issacharoff place the burnt-out vehicles and the start of the search at about 9.45 a.m. These are different moments, not necessarily a conflict.

Friday, 11 August 2006

From the books

The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 1701.
Adopted unanimously, it demanded a complete end to hostilities and an Israeli pull-out from the South, where the Lebanese army and a UNIFIL raised to 15,000 troops were to deploy; Hezbollah's weapons were left for the Lebanese state to deal with. In a televised address, Nasrallah said Hezbollah would not block Lebanon's decision. The war's day-by-day record is in 111101's July 2006 archive (/facts/history/july2006/).

Sources differ: 11 August (Picard; Friday evening in New York per Harel & Issacharoff) against 12 August (Abirached). The difference is the time zone: the vote came in the early hours of 12 August in Beirut.

Monday, 14 August 2006

From the books

The cessation of hostilities takes effect; the displaced return south.
The ceasefire came into force on 14 August. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people immediately headed back to the South, and Hassan Nasrallah claimed a 'divine' or 'strategic' victory and promised compensation for destroyed homes. Tolls for the 33 days differ widely between the books. The war's day-by-day record is in 111101's July 2006 archive (/facts/history/july2006/).

Sources differ: Lebanese dead: nearly 1,200 (Abirached; Quéméner, who repeats the same figures and probably depends on the same source), about 900 (de Clerck & Malsagne 2025), 1,400 (de Clerck & Malsagne in Confluences 2020). Israeli displaced: 400,000 (Abirached, Quéméner) against 250,000 (Mermier & Picard introduction). Cutoffs and definitions are not given.

Thursday, 17 August 2006

From the books

The Lebanese army begins deploying in the South.
Israel handed half of its positions in the South to UNIFIL.

Saturday, 19 August 2006

From the books

Israeli commando raid at Boudai, near Baalbek.
According to the UN, the Israeli raid on Hezbollah breached the cessation of hostilities.

Sunday, 20 August 2006

From the books

Lebanon accepts Italian command of the enlarged UNIFIL.
France sent 150 soldiers.

Wednesday, 23 August 2006

From the books

Bashar al-Assad refuses UNIFIL deployment on the Syrian-Lebanese border.
Damascus would not accept the enlarged UN force on the Lebanese–Syrian frontier.

Thursday, 24 August 2006

From the books

France offers 2,000 troops to UNIFIL.
France would put 2,000 soldiers into the reinforced UNIFIL and was ready to take command of it, Jacques Chirac told France 2.

Sunday, 27 August 2006

From the books

Nasrallah says Hezbollah will not hinder UNIFIL's deployment.
The statement came in a television interview on New TV.

Monday, 28 August 2006

From the books

The Lebanese army seizes weapons in the South.
The seizure took place in South Lebanon, where the army was deploying under Resolution 1701.

Tuesday, 29 August 2006

From the books

Kofi Annan in Beirut calls for lifting the Israeli blockade.
The UN Secretary-General also asked that Beirut and Damascus open diplomatic relations and make their shared border secure. Hezbollah's forces left their positions opposite the Shebaa Farms.

Thursday, 31 August 2006

From the books

Stockholm conference on Lebanon's reconstruction; Annan in Damascus.
The Stockholm reconstruction conference opened with a goal of 500 million dollars. Kofi Annan was in Damascus, asking Assad for diplomatic relations with Lebanon and a demarcated border; Assad answered that a UNIFIL presence on the border would be 'hostile' and warned he might reply with a land blockade.

Friday, 1 September 2006

From the books

Donors pledge 940 million dollars; Assad promises to help enforce the arms embargo.
Donor pledges at the close of the Stockholm conference totalled 940 million dollars. Assad, for his part, undertook to help the UN apply the embargo on weapons for Hezbollah.

Sources differ: Abirached's JSON extract lists this under 'September' without a day; the PDF page reads 1 September.

Saturday, 2 September 2006

From the books

Nine hundred Italian soldiers land to reinforce UNIFIL.
The soldiers came to reinforce UNIFIL, whose command Italy had accepted.

Sunday, 3 September 2006

From the books

The Justice Minister studies legal action against Israel for war crimes.
Justice Minister Charles Rizk said he would weigh legal action against Israel should war crimes be proven.

Monday, 4 September 2006

From the books

Annan: Israel and Hezbollah agree to UN mediation on the two captured soldiers.
The UN was to mediate between Israel and Hezbollah over the two soldiers captured on 12 July: both had agreed, the Secretary-General announced from Saudi Arabia.

Tuesday, 5 September 2006

From the books

Bomb attack at Rmeileh on a police officer investigating Hariri's murder.
An Internal Security Forces officer who was investigating Rafic Hariri's murder was attacked at Rmeileh. Abirached's chronology closes with this event.

Thursday, 7 September 2006

From the books

The Israeli air and sea blockade ends.
The Israeli blockade, in force from 12 July to 7 September, stopped Lebanese printed matter from being exported. In the southern suburb, bombing partly or wholly destroyed some forty publishing houses and about ten printing works.

Friday, 22 September 2006

From the books

Hassan Nasrallah's 'victory' speech.
Nasrallah's 'victory' speech made no distinction among the martyrs it honoured: resistance fighters, soldiers, members of the security forces and of civil defence.

Wednesday, 27 September 2006

From the books

Syria says it will settle border disputes with Lebanon in writing, except Shebaa.
Foreign Minister Walid Moallem left out the Shebaa Farms, on the grounds that Israel still occupied them.

Sunday, 1 October 2006

From the books

Israel completes an almost total withdrawal from the South.
Once UNIFIL was strengthened, Israel left nearly all of the South; Lebanon faced a vast task of rebuilding.

Saturday, 11 November 2006

From the books

Hezbollah and Amal ministers resign from the government.
Amal and Hezbollah quit Siniora's cabinet, which they accused of half-hearted support for Hezbollah in the summer war; they also sought to stop the Hariri tribunal. The cabinet went on without them.

Tuesday, 21 November 2006

From the books

Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel is assassinated.
Pierre Gemayel, MP and Minister of Industry, was assassinated in Beirut. Picard calls Amine's son and Bashir's nephew the heir to the Kataeb leadership.

2006: day not established

May 2006

From the books

Syrian and Lebanese intellectuals sign the Beirut-Damascus Declaration.
In May 2006 several hundred Lebanese and Syrians signed Michel Kilo's declaration calling for mutual respect of sovereignty, border demarcation, diplomatic relations and democracy in both states; Syria then harassed and arrested signatories, Kilo above all.

June 2006

From the books

A television parody of Nasrallah sets off a night of riots.
Hezbollah supporters rioted, reaching Beirut's tourist districts, after a Christian TV channel aired a parody of Hassan Nasrallah.

weeks after the ceasefire September 2006

From the books

Youth gangs clash along old sectarian lines in Beirut.
Rival youth gangs fought in Beirut over the weeks after the ceasefire, pitting Shiites against Sunnis in the western districts and, repeatedly, Christians of Ain al-Rummaneh against Shiites from neighbouring Chiyah and the southern suburb. With the old sectarian lines resurfacing, security forces were posted at strategic points across the city.

November 2006

From the books

The area around Hariri's grave is closed off with barbed wire.
Haugbolle reads fear into it: barbed wire now ringed Hariri's grave and the Martyrs' statue, where the 2005 protests began.

December 2006

From the books

The opposition begins its sit-in in central Beirut.
Hezbollah, Amal and Aoun supporters occupied central Beirut beside the Prime Minister's offices, calling for Siniora to go; the Doha agreement of May 2008 ended the sit-in.

Sources differ: Quéméner places the camp on Martyrs' Square, Haugbolle 'in front of parliament'.