Rafic Bahaa El Deen al-Hariri, also known as Rafiq al-Hariri, was a Lebanese businessman and politician, who served as the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000 until he resigned on 20 October 2004, before his assassination in 2005.
Michel Naim Aoun is a Lebanese politician and former military general who served as the President of Lebanon from 31 October 2016 until 30 October 2022.
Saad El-Din Rafik Al-Hariri is a Lebanese-Saudi businessman and politician who served as the prime minister of Lebanon from 2009 to 2011 and 2016 to 2020. The son of Rafic Hariri, he founded and has been leading the Future Movement party since 2007. He is seen as "the strongest figurehead" of the March 14 Alliance.
Along with the Amal Movement, Hezbollah is one of the two main parties representing the Shia community, Lebanon's largest religious bloc. Amal has made a commitment to carrying out its activities through political means, but remains a partial fighting force aiding Hezbollah when the need arises.
The 2006–2008 Lebanese protests were a series of political protests and sit-ins in Lebanon that began on 1 December 2006, led by groups that opposed the US and Saudi-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and ended on 21 May 2008 with the signing of the Doha Agreement. The opposition was made up of Hezbollah, Amal, and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM); a number of smaller parties were also involved, including the Marada party, the Lebanese Communist Party and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. A majority of the members of the government were part of the anti-Syrian March 14 Alliance, a coalition of political parties and independents in Lebanon. The two groups were also divided along religious lines, with most Sunnis and Druze supporting the government, and most Shi'a supporting the opposition. The Christian community was split between the two factions, with Michel Aoun, the leader of the FPM, claiming to have more than 70% support among the Christians, based on the results of the 2005 parliamentary election.
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), also referred to as the Lebanon Tribunal or the Hariri Tribunal, is a tribunal of international character applying Lebanese criminal law under the authority of the United Nations to carry out the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for 14 February 2005 assassination of Rafic Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, and the deaths of 21 others, as well as those responsible for connected attacks.
Ali Hassan Khalil is a Lebanese politician, Member of Parliament, and former Minister of Finance.
Najib Azmi Mikati is a Lebanese politician and businessman who has served as the prime minister of Lebanon since September 2021. He also leads a cabinet that has assumed the powers of the president of Lebanon since the term of president Michel Aoun ended in October 2022. He has previously served as prime minister from April to July 2005, and from June 2011 to February 2014. He also served as Minister of Public Works and Transport from December 1998 to 2003.
On 19 October 2012, Wissam al-Hassan, a brigadier general of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) and the head of its intelligence-oriented information branch, died along with several others killed by a car bomb in the Achrafieh district of Beirut. The killing of a senior figure closely linked with the anti-Assad camp in Lebanon led to immediate speculation that Syria, or its allies, were behind the attack in Beirut. Al-Hassan had also led the investigation that implicated Syria and its ally Hezbollah in the killing of the former prime minister Rafik Hariri.
Hassan Diab is a Lebanese academic, engineer and politician who served as the prime minister of Lebanon from 21 January 2020 to 10 September 2021. He was appointed by President Michel Aoun in 2019 to succeed Saad Hariri as prime minister. He submitted his resignation on 10 August 2020 in wake of the 2020 Beirut explosion and served as caretaker prime minister until Najib Mikati formed a new government on 10 September 2021. Prior to his premiership, he served as the minister of education from June 2011 to February 2014 under President Michel Suleiman.
Tammam Saeb Salam is a Lebanese politician who was the Prime Minister of Lebanon from February 2014 until December 2016. He also served as the acting President of Lebanon from May 2014 until October 2016 in his capacity as prime minister. He previously served in the government of Lebanon as minister of culture from 2008 to 2009.
Events in the year 2019 in Lebanon.
The 17 October Protests, commonly referred to as the 17 October Revolution or as Hirak were a series of civil protests in Lebanon that began after the Lebanese cabinet announced financial measures on 17 October 2019. These national protests were triggered by planned taxes on gasoline, tobacco, and VoIP calls on applications such as WhatsApp, but quickly expanding into a country-wide condemnation of sectarian rule, the stagnation of the economy, unemployment, endemic corruption in the public sector, legislation that was perceived to shield the ruling class from accountability and failures of the government to provide basic services such as electricity, water, and sanitation.
Events in the year 2020 in Lebanon.
Zeina Akar is a Lebanese politician who served as the Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Lebanon from 21 January 2020 to 10 September 2021. She was the first female defence minister in the Arab world.
Ghada Chreim Ata, born on 30 September 1968, is a Lebanese female politician and professor of French literature at the Lebanese University.
Events in the year 2021 in Lebanon.
The 2022 Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament election was an election to elect the speaker of the 24th Lebanese Parliament. It was 7th legislative speaker election since the implementation of the Taif Agreement in 1989.
Nizar Hassan is a Lebanese activist, journalist, podcaster and social researcher, focused on political economy and social movements, especially concerning Lebanon. He is co-founder of the Lebanese political organization LiHaqqi, which ran candidates for the Lebanese general elections of 2018 and 2022, having served as its spokesperson on multiple occasions. He has been a regular author analyzing Lebanese political affairs for the newspapers L'Orient-Le Jour, The New Arab, The Daily Star and Al-Arab, with contributions to ROAR magazine, Bretton Woods Project, Al Bawaba, BirGün or Green Left.
