lebanese war
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1975/1990
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20 news for the 2nd, 22nd of January, February, September

with the books
January 22, 1976thursday
While the Palestine Liberation Army controlled the Akkar and the Bekaa with the exception of Zahleh, a cease-fire was concluded under the aegis of Syria.

\_this day in full the books also date it 23 January 1976 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Traboulsi, de Clerck and Malsagne, and Yara El Khoury date the Syrian-mediated cease-fire to 23 January. PLA and Saiqa units attacked Zgharta in the north but were repulsed, and Zahleh, besieged, held out.

September 22, 1976wednesday
Bechir Gemayel announced the creation of an army to defend Lebanon.

\_this day in full the books also date it 25 March 1976, 31 August 1976 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Ménargues dates the formal unification of the Christian militias under Bashir Gemayel's command to 31 August 1976; Yara El Khoury has it announced to President Frangieh in early September 1976. According to de Clerck and Malsagne, 'Lebanese Forces' was not the official name until 1981, but the unified command was officially founded on 25 March 1976.

January 22, 1978sunday
The Lebanese Front adopted a coexistence formula.
Leaders of the Lebanese Front, gathered at President Frangieh's home in Zghorta since the day before, inaugurated their seminar which main themes were the national understanding, the project of Palestinians settlement in Lebanon, and the internal organization of the Front itself. Their final press release made it clear that the Palestinian presence constituted an obstacle to the national understanding and that Lebanon rejected any kind of union.

\_this day in full the books also date it 21 January 1977 \_on this day

February 2, 1978thursday
Michel Sardou caused the walls at the Casino du Liban to vibrate.

\_this day in full \_on this day

January 22, 1979monday
One of the closest collaborators of Yasser Arafat, Ali Hassan Salameh, nicknamed of Abou Hassan, died in an explosion. The attack that took place in the Snoubra sector caused 11 dead and 17 injured.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

According to de Clerck and Malsagne, a Mossad agent detonated a bomb in a Volkswagen as Salameh's Chevrolet passed. His wife, Georgina Rizk, had been Lebanon's first Miss Universe.

September 22, 1979saturday
President Elias Sarkis delivered an important speech, in which he emphasized the overriding role the army should play. Without it 'the State will be a body with no soul', he said. He insisted that the Arabs should stop to shilly-shally about Southern Lebanon.

\_this day in full the books also date it 13 March 1979 \_on this day

January 2, 1980wednesday
The chief of the 'Iranian volunteers', Hodjatolislam Mohammed Montazeri, held a press conference in Beirut during which he reasserted his men's determination to go to South Lebanon to 'fight imperialism and Zionism.' And he added: 'We will come by thousands.'

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

De Clerck and Malsagne have Iranian clerics and activists settling in the Bekaa, and then in Tyre, from 1980, before 500 to 2,000 Revolutionary Guards entered Lebanon in June 1982.

January 22, 1980tuesday
The Arab Strike Force withdrew from the road going South. This initiative surprised the authorities.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

Hanf places it in early 1980. Palestine Liberation Army units under Syrian or pro-Syrian command took over the Syrian posts in and near Beirut, while the Syrian troops, bar one garrison, quit the city's dividing line and the coast road to the south and redeployed to the heights above the capital.

September 2, 1982thursday
The normalization continued. The Sodeco crossing way was opened to traffic.

\_this day in full \_on this day

February 2, 1983wednesday
The aggressions didn't spare the Multinational Force. Reacting to the anti-French attacks, the President of the French Republic, Francois Mitterand, ordered the reinforcement of the French contingent in Lebanon.

\_this day in full \_on this day

September 22, 1983thursday
It was the turn of the French to react. The super-standards bombarded the artillery positions in Dhour Choueir while a bomb shower fell on Greater Beirut.

\_this day in full \_on this day

January 2, 1984monday
The year started like the previous one ended : everyone was talking about a new security plan for the mountain and the Southern suburbs of Beirut. Nevertheless, the fights continued intermittently in these regions between the Army and the Lebanese Forces on one side and the Progressive Socialist Party and Amal on the other.

\_this day in full the books also date it 29 January 1984 \_on this day

\_what the books add

On 29 January the Druze resumed attacking the army at Souk al-Gharb, after Shi'i militia sniping at the army and French troops from mid-January, Hanf's next escalation.

January 22, 1984sunday
Walid Joumblatt, president of the Progressive Socialist Party, requested the resignation of the Lebanese government.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

Hanf: Gemayel had undertaken at Geneva to negotiate a new agreement with Israel and had not; for that, Jumblatt and Berri demanded he resign at the end of January. Traboulsi cites Jumblatt, early in 1984, vowing to fight on until Gemayel's government went. Neither confirms the day, 22 January.

February 2, 1984thursday
The schools closed their doors in the Eastern sector of the capital due to the blind shelling of Beirut and its suburbs.

\_this day in full the books also date it 1 February 1984 \_on this day

September 2, 1986tuesday
The first meeting of the Dialog Committee was held at the Beirut racecourse. The ten members of the government met for the first time since November 1985. The Ministers decided to elaborate a new National Pact.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

The meetings produced no agreement (Hanf).

January 2, 1987friday
The Minister of Labor Selim El Hoss signed a decree raising the minimum wage to 3,200 LBP. This decision was a timid ray of light in the heavy economic sky.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

Historians describe the collapse of real wages behind such decrees: against 1974, the statutory minimum wage kept 13 percent of its buying power at the end of 1986 (Hanf, after Abou Rjaily and Labaki).

February 2, 1987monday
The Swiss Embassy was the last embassy to close in West Beirut.

\_this day in full \_on this day

February 2, 1988tuesday
Jacques Merrin, a Frenchman working for the DGSE, is killed by unknown persons in the neighborhood of the Palace of Justice.

\_this day in full \_on this day

September 22, 1988thursday
A few minutes before the expiration of his mandate, President Amine Gemayel named the Maronite commander of the army, general Michel Aoun, Prime Minister of a military government. According to the constitution, the ministers' council takes over the executive power in case of a vacancy of the presidency. However, the three Muslim Ministers withdraw immediately.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

Hanf (p. 570) says Gemayel signed the decrees at 23.45, after an ultimatum from Aoun and Geagea, and that the cabinet had six officers from six communities. Traboulsi's postscript dates the end of the term to October 1988, and Picard (p. 155) and Quéméner to August 1988; the other sources agree on 22 September.

September 22, 1989friday
A cease-fire was officially observed while general Aoun answered favorably to the Arab peace proposals.

\_this day in full the books also date it 13 September 1989, 23 September 1989 \_on this day

\_what the books add

The dates differ: Picard ends the 'war of liberation' on 22 September; de Clerck and Malsagne say the ceasefire took effect on 23 September. Hanf dates the troika's new plan to 13 September (de Clerck and Malsagne say 17 September). Aoun accepted it, urging the deputies to insist on a timetable for Syrian withdrawal.