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November 29, 1978wednesday
The President concluded his visit to Paris with disappointment. France took a moderate position while thousands of Lebanese who fled to Paris exhorted the French government to react. However, politics has its own reasons.
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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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December 8, 1978friday
A serious incident was reported in Jounieh.
A Phalangist leader, Elie Hobeika, was arrested at an army checkpoint in Nahr el Kalb. The incident degenerated into fights and the entire region flared up. A helicopter transporting Saudi and Kuwaiti ambassadors and flying over the region was hit by submachine-gun shots. The Saudi ambassador was injured.
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Ménargues writes that when the Moukafaha, Johnny Abdo's own intervention unit, arrested Elie Hobeika for allegedly having the Saudi ambassador's helicopter fired on, Bashir Gemayel had about a hundred army officers abducted; they were traded for Hobeika three weeks later.
December 20, 1978wednesday
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.
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January 6, 1979saturday
President Elias Sarkis re-affirmed the rejection of the implantation. The chief of State requested the reinforcement for the UNIFL
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January 8, 1979monday
The bad weather provoked considerable damages.
Following strong showers during the weekend in the North, landslides made several routes impracticable whereas, for the first time in twenty years, a flood was reported in Nahr El Kebir, which constitutes the Northern frontier between Lebanon and Syria. The El Arida metallic bridge collapsed.
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January 12, 1979friday
Members of the Commission of Justice requested the adoption of a law prohibiting the sale of lands to non-Lebanese. In the south, it seemed that many lands have been sold to non-Lebanese.
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January 16, 1979tuesday
The disappearance of the Imam Sadr was back on the news. Seven young Lebanese Shiite militiamen hijacked the MEA Boeing 720, in order to attract the world's attention on the sequestration of the Imam. The militants affirmed that General Kadhafi, who was vigorously opposed to the Palestinian settlement in Lebanon, detained Imam Moussa Sadr. The hijackers surrendered to the Lebanese justice at night.
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January 19, 1979friday
The Israeli army launched a triple air, ground and sea operation against Arnoun, Aichieh and the costal region. These events caused 16 dead, 12 injured and 25 prisoners.
Concurrently, the Security Council renewed the UNIFL mandate until Beirut elaborated a program re-establishing its authority in Southern Lebanon.
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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.
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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.
January 23, 1979tuesday
Considering the inflation and the depreciation of the Lebanese pound, new 250 LP bills were put in circulation starting February 1.
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September 7, 1979friday
Three commandos hijacked an Alitalia airplane. Their objective was to denounce Kadhafi in front of the international opinion. 141 passengers out of 175 were released at the airport of Rome. The air pirates surrendered to the Iranians the next day.
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September 8, 1979saturday
Dalida fascinated her fans at the Piccadilly. September 11
A confrontation between the Phalangists and the Tachnag (Armenian militia) caused 24 dead, 30 wounded and 40 hostages in Nabaa and Bourj Hammoud.
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Dalida also sang at the new Summerland hotel in Jnah in September 1979 (de Clerck and Malsagne). The Kataeb-Tashnag clashes of 11 September belong to a series: Hanf records hostilities in May and September 1979, settled amicably; de Clerck and Malsagne date fighting to November; Traboulsi says that in 1978-1979 the Phalange and Chamoun's Tigers gradually subdued the Armenian militias, which would not pay them taxes.
September 12, 1979wednesday
The notables of Zghorta and Becharreh reconciled under the aegis of Patriarch Khoreiche. In a common declaration, the notables requested the deployment of the army in their region.
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September 15, 1979saturday
Several hundreds of women gathered at the Arts and Crafts garden and head towards the office of the Prime Minister. Most of them were originally from the South and they were claiming peace.
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September 20, 1979thursday
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
September 26, 1979wednesday
November 12, 1979monday
The work document that Lebanon was going to present in Tunis, contained 6 main points: exercising pressure on the United States to end Israeli aggressions, freezing the actions of the Fedayin, laying the Lebanese authority in the South, banning any illegal armed presence, re-activating the Beiteddine Committee, and grouping guerillas in some specified zones.
\_this day in full the books also date it 20 November 1979 \_on this day
November 22, 1979thursday
For the first time since 1974, the Lebanese celebrated Independence Day with showiness.
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Hanf writes that West Beirut's Sunnis sided with the Shi'is on National Day, which became a protest against every foreign armed presence; cedar flags hung all over the city.
November 23, 1979friday
The Tunis summit was disappointing. Lebanon received only a solemn proclamation of support doubled by a financial assistance up to 2 billion dollars, but the Southern Lebanon problem remained unsolved, the summit having just called the State and the resistance to get along.
\_this day in full the books also date it 20 November 1979 \_on this day
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The Arab summit met in Tunis from 20 to 22 November 1979.
December 1, 1979saturday
A total shortage of fuel paralyzed the capital, as well as the mountain and the South; the reasons for this shortage remained unknown.
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December 7, 1979friday
For the first time in Lebanon, a particularly delicate surgical intervention was successfully undertaken. Professor Wafic Sinno performed an implantation of an artificial crystalline at the Hotel-Dieu hospital.
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December 19, 1979wednesday
An ongoing manifestation in Tripoli went out of control. The demonstrators protesting against the increase of the cost of living, vandalized Tripoli's seraglio and molested the Mohafez of Northern Lebanon. The administrations and public services clerks in Tripoli decided to stop working for 3 days.
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December 26, 1979wednesday
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.'
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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 18, 1980friday
A Shiite hijacked an MEA Boeing 707.
This airplane flying from Beirut to Larnaca had 72 passengers and 10 crewmembers onboard. The hijacker surrendered to the Lebanese authorities and claimed, in a press conference, the intensification of the efforts in order to find Imam Moussa Sadr. He also requested the positioning of the Lebanese army in South of Lebanon.
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January 21, 1980monday
The Lebanese army projected to deploy in South Lebanon while Israel was strongly opposed to this project.
\_this day in full the books also date it 20 March 1980 \_on this day
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Deploying the army, Sarkis insisted on his return from an Arab meeting at Ta'if in February 1980, should come before political reform (Traboulsi). Amal and the Phalange newspaper al-Amal also called for the army to be sent south (Traboulsi; Hanf).
January 22, 1980tuesday
The Arab Strike Force withdrew from the road going South. This initiative surprised the authorities.
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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.
January 25, 1980friday
Fights opposed the Phalange Party and the NLP in Ehmej and Annaya. The road leading to Jbeil was closed. An acute crisis erupted between the two parties.
\_this day in full the books also date it 12 May 1979 \_on this day
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One of many clashes between Kataeb and National Liberal militiamen: de Clerck and Malsagne count 46, with 200 dead, from 1976 to 1980, the latest wave running from 12 May 1979 to 2 July 1980 and reaching Achrafieh early in 1980. Ménargues traces the tension of early 1980 partly to disputes over dividing the arms Israel supplied.
January 30, 1980wednesday
The situation worsened in Ehmej. Some sources reported 4 dead and 10 injured persons.
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See the note on the entry of 25 January 1980.
September 26, 1980friday
An assault was launched against the US embassy in West Beirut. Two missiles were fired on the chancellery hitting the second and fourth floors. The aggressors remained unidentified.
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November 1, 1980saturday
The Safir press was dynamited in Hamra.
Ain el Remmaneh recovered its calm. The cease-fire concluded between the army and the Lebanese Forces was fully respected. Nevertheless, a profound discomfort persisted in the country at higher levels because the tension persisted, and the Army lost some of its credibility due to its withdrawal.
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