The modern Lebanese population of approximately 3.7 million contains more Muslims than Christians, with Lebanese Muslims divided almost equally between the Sunni and Shiite sects. The majority of Lebanese Christians are Maronites, who recognize the authority of the pope while also upholding many Eastern rites. Other Christians belong either to the Greek Catholic church (Melkites) or various branches of the Orthodox Eastern church. Lebanon is also an unwilling host to approximately 350,000 Palestinian refugees, creating numerous unresolved problems regarding their absorption into society. To further complicate Arab-Christian and Arab-Jewish conflicts, each group often expresses different opinions concerning internal Lebanese affairs, which has resulted in Muslims opposing Muslims and Christians opposing Christians.
Tention focused on Lebanon when Shiite Muslims hijacked a passenger airplane into Beirut, a constitutional crisis ensued, leaving Lebanon with two heavily armed governments claiming legitimacy: the Christian government in East Beirut and the predominantly Muslim government in West Beirut.
Amid rumors that Syrian and Iranian militias were about to join the Syrian army against the Lebanese, U. N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar called an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, only the third time the United Nation's emergency powers had been invoked. Nearly all Lebanese opposed the proposed division of their country into two nations, and in March, 1989, General Michel Aoun gained Iraqi assistance and launched a "war of liberation" against Syria and its allies within Lebanon.
Later that year the Lebanese national assembly met in Taif, Saudi Arabia, and agreed on a Charter of National Reconciliation, afterward known as the Taif Agreement. This constitutional compromise adjusted the parliament, presidency, and cabinet so that Christian and Muslim representatives would equally share political power. When Aoun proclaimed the election of Maronite Christian president Rene Mouawad to be unconstitutional, the new government immediately dismissed him as commander of
The Lebanese army, and he retreated into exile in France after failing to gain any foreign support.
World History
