In a matter of hours, Amal took control over West Beirut. The capital was heavily bombed, while the Army gave up the control of the Western sector of the Capital to Amal and to the Islamic militias.

The Lausanne conference began and lasted until March 20. The observers considered it a camouflaged failure. The participants decided to execute a security plan, stop slanderous campaigns, create a constituent assembly, and resume the dialog under the patronage of the chief of State.

An agreement was signed during the new Assad-Gemayel summit in Damascus. It included the following points: forming a national union government, consolidating of the cease-fire, and reorganizing the Army.

A new national union government was formed.

A new round of murderous violence killed 22 persons and wounded 107 others. The bombardments reached the Baabda Palace, forcing the organizers of a peace walk to express national dissatisfaction, to cancel the event.

The Army was deployed in Greater Beirut. The crossing points were reopened, thus unifying the Eastern and Western sectors of the Capital.

In Tripoli, a violent battle opposed Islamists from Sheikh Said Chaabane’s Islamic Unification Movement to the Arab Democratic Party’s Red Knights. A deluge of metal and fire hit the capital of the North. These fights killed 15 persons and injured 60 others.

At the United Nations, the United States vetoed a Lebanese draft resolution submitted to the Security Council. This draft resolution requested from Israel, the "occupying force", to respect civil rights in South Lebanon.