lebanese war
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1975/1990
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25 news for the 2nd, 5th of January, September, December

with the books
January 5, 1976monday
After a delay of three months, the American University of Beirut inaugurated its academic year 1975-1976.

\_this day in full \_on this day

December 5, 1978tuesday
The Arab tripartite committee including Saudi and Kuwaiti ambassadors and a Syrian general, met in Baabda in presence of the chief of State. The committee excluded any immediate resort to the army.

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January 5, 1979friday
Lebanon entered a complacency phase.
All sides seemed decided to wait for important regional developments to unfold in order to re-evaluate the situation and define the course of action. The situation was very tense in the South where the Israelis were shelling the Hasbaya region.

\_this day in full \_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 5, 1981monday
Militiamen led by the dissident officer Saad Haddad bombarded the locality of Hasbaya, causing important damages.

\_this day in full \_on this day

January 5, 1981monday
Michel Rocard, member of the French Socialist Party's national secretariat met with President Elias Sarkis, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Chafic Wazzan, as well as with the PLO leader, Yasser Arafat.

\_this day in full \_on this day

September 5, 1981saturday
Hamid Frangieh, one of the major figures of the Lebanese independence, died. Born in Ehden in 1907, he was the first Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Lebanese Independent State, in the 1943 cabinet of Riad Solh. He was deputy of Zghorta from 1943 to 1957. He negotiated in February 1948 the monetary convention with France. It was a big loss for Lebanon.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

According to Picard, Hamid Frangieh negotiated Lebanon's financial agreements with France, which she places in 1943 rather than 1948.

December 5, 1981saturday
The residential areas were again bombarded with heavy artillery.

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

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December 2, 1982thursday
A wide meeting in Baabda reached an agreement on the creation of a Lebanese strike force in charge of reestablishing order and security in Aley and the Chouf.

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January 5, 1983wednesday
Pope John-Paul II appointed the maronite Patriarch of Antioch and the East, Bishop Antonios Boutros Khoreiche, Cardinal. Bishop Khoreiche was born on the 20th of September, 1907 at Ain Ebel in Southern Lebanon. After having studied at Saint Joseph University, he was ordained priest on April 12, 1930. He became Bishop on October 1950 and Archbishop of Saida in 1957. On April 11, 1974, he became patriarchal vicar general of Bkerkeh. Following the death of Patriarch Meouchi on January 11, 1975, the synod elected Bishop Khoreiche on February 3, 1975, after a conclave of 15 days.

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December 5, 1983monday
150 kilos of hexogen exploded at Tarik Jdideh spreading terror, killing 16 persons and injuring 100.

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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.

September 5, 1984wednesday
The Minister Selim El Hoss escaped, one more time, from a car bomb killing attempt in Raoucheh.

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September 5, 1985thursday
Violent combats opposed Amal and the PSP in West Beirut.

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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.

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\_what the books add

The meetings produced no agreement (Hanf).

December 2, 1986tuesday
A general strike paralyzed the country. The Lebanese were unable to cope with the increase in prices. The leaders couldn't find any solution to the crisis. The popular discontent was on the rise.

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December 5, 1986friday
Abou Melhem died. The great TV comedian, whose real name was Adib Haddad, became famous for playing, for many years, the character of a villager famous for his common sense. The grandfather of all the Lebanese had disappeared.

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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.

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\_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).

January 5, 1987monday
While the Camps War raged between Amal and the Popular Palestinian Liberation Front, the Salam mission, aiming at reconciling Presidents Assad and Gemayel, was resumed.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

The third 'war of the camps' had begun in the south at the end of September 1986; fighting resumed in the Beirut camps in December. By early January 1987 it had cost over 500 dead and 2,000 wounded, by a French diplomatic estimate. The books describe Amal's adversaries as PLO fighters, mostly loyal to Arafat.

September 5, 1987saturday
The Israeli Airforce conducts a murderous raid on sur Ain el-Heloueh, killing 41 persons and injuring 40.

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December 2, 1987wednesday
While credits are unblocked to buy fuel and service stations are reopened, Victor Cassir, Minister of Industry and Oil, authorizes private companies to import fuel subject to a previous authorization by the Ministry of Oil.

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December 2, 1988friday
General Aoun orders the closure of the Museum-Berbir junction; the passage will be re-opened 17 days later.

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January 5, 1990friday
After having spent 43 days in the military casern of Ablah, President Elias Hraoui leaves the Bekaa and settles in Ramlet-el-Beida. The photographer of L'Orient-Le Jour and the Nahar, Georges Semerdjian dies while on the field.

\_this day in full \_on this day

December 5, 1990wednesday
The Lebanese Army controls the port of Beirut and the 5th dock is closed to the maritime traffic.

\_this day in full the books also date it 3 December 1990, 11 March 1991 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Hanf says 300 Lebanese Forces militiamen stayed at Karantina and the port after the December 1990 withdrawal, and dates the army's entry into the Fifth Basin and other militia ports to 11 March 1991.