Lebanese Political Parties

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Al-Ahbash

Al-Ahbash is a religious sect and political party in Lebanon; alternative names are: The Ahbash, Habashis, al Habashiyyin, and Jam'iyyat al- Mashari' al-Khayriyya al-Islamiyya (in English, Association of Islamic Charitable Projects - AICP).
It follows the teachings of Shaykh Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Hirari al-Shibi al- Abdari, also known as al-Habashi ("the Ethiopian" and cognate to Habesha), an interpretation of Islam combining elements of Sunni and Shi'a theology with Sufism. It advocates pluralism, and opposition to political activism and violence (its slogan is "the resounding voice of moderation"). It also promotes its beliefs internationally through a major Web presence and regional offices, notably in the United States.
It is highly controversial within Islamism for its religious stance (anti-Salafi, and with Sufi and other beliefs seen as heretical) and its political alliances (pro-Syria and conciliatory toward the West).


Al-Murabitun

Al-Murabitun (al-murabitūn, also transliterated as al-Mourabitoun, an Arabic term literally meaning The Sentinels, but with Muslim historical connotations) was an alternative name for the Independent Nasserist Organization of Lebanon. It was also the name of the party's militia during the Lebanese Civil War, and there often little distinction between the two. Both the INO and al-Murabitun were led by Ibrahim Kulaylat.
The radically Arab nationalist (Nasserist) Al-Murabitun was largely led by Sunni Muslims, but at its peak, its approximately 3,000 fighters also included many Shi'a muslims and some Druze, as well as minor numbers of other Lebanese sects. It participated in the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) under the leadership of Kamal Jumblatt's PSP against government forces and mainly Christian militias, and it was a strong ally of the Palestinian movement. It fought in West Beirut and Tripoli among other places.
Its unwavering support for the PLO resulted in al-Murabitun being attacked and nearly completely destroyed by an alliance of Druze PSP fighters, the Shi'a Muslim Amal Movement and pro-Syrian Palestinian organizations, after Syria launched an all-out offensive on the PLO and its supporters in 1983.


Amal Movement

Amal movement is short for the Lebanese Resistance Detachments. Amal became one of the most important Shi'ite Muslim militias during the Lebanese Civil War. Amal grew strong through its close ties with the Islamic regime of Iran, and the 300,000 Shi'i internal refugees from southern Lebanon after the Israeli bombings in the early 1980s. At its greatest the militia had 14,000 troops.
Amal's historical objectives are to achieve respect for Lebanon's long-alienated Shiite population and a fairer distribution of resources for the South.
Amal fought a long campaign against Palestinian refugees in the Lebanese Civil War called the War of the Camps. After the War of the Camps Amal fought a bloody battle against its fellow Shi'a group Hizbullah for Beirut. This battle ended with massive Syrian intervention.


The Arab Socialist Union

The Arab Socialist Union was founded in Egypt in December 1962 by Gamal Abdel Nasser as the country's sole political party. The ASU grew out of his Free Officers Movement.
The party's formation was just one part in Nasser's National Charter. The Charter set out an agenda of nationalisation, agrarian reform and constitutional reform, which formed the basis of ASU policy.
The programme of nationalisation under Nasser saw seven billion Egyptian pounds of private assets transferred into the public sector. Banks, insurance companies, many large shipping companies, major heavy industries and major basic industries were converted to public control. Land reforms saw the maximum area of private land ownership successively reduced from 200 to 100feddans.
A 90% top rate of income tax was levied on income over five thousand Egyptian pounds. Boards of directors were required to have a minimum number of workers, and workers and peasants were guaranteed at least half of the seats in the People's Assembly.
The Charter also saw a shift in emphasis away from Egyptian nationalism towards Arab unity.
After Nasser's death in 1970, Anwar Sadat quickly moved away from his radical socialist position. The first sea change occurred in 1974, with Sadat's Infitah, or Open Door, economic policy, which allowed the emergence of a modern entrepreneurial and consumerist society. Then, in 1976, the beginning of political pluralism allowed three political platforms — left, centre and right — to form within the Arab Socialist Union. In 1978, the platforms were allowed to become fully independent political parties, and the ASU was disbanded. Many of today's political parties in Egypt have their origin in the breakup of the ASU.


Armenian Revolutionary Federation

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) (Armenian: Hay Heghapokhakan Dashnaktsutiun Dashnaktsutiun, Dashnak, or Tashnak) is an Armenian political party founded in Georgia in 1890 by Christapor Mikaelian, Stepan Zorian, and Simon Zavarian. The party operates among Armenian communities internationally, especially in Armenia and Lebanon, and in the ethnic Armenian-dominated Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, which declared its independence from Azerbaijan in the 1990s and was liberated by Armenian forces. The ARF advocates socialism and is a member of the Socialist International, although the implemenation of Socialist policies have not been consistent.


Communist Action Organization in Lebanon

The COA was formed through the merger of the Organization of Socialist Lebanon and the Movement of Lebanese Socialists in 1970, under the leadership of Muhsen Ibrahim. These groups included veterans of the Lebanese branch of the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), a left-wing radical Pan-Arab group which had splintered into national factions in the late 1960s. The COA was not affiliated to George Hawi's Lebanese Communist Party (LCP), which it criticized for "reformist tendencies"[3], but held unsuccessful talks on a party merger in the mid-1970s.
The COA was involved in the Lebanese Civil War, on the side of the Lebanese National Movement (LNM), of which Ibrahim was Executive Secretary. However, the LNM dissolved after the death of its founder, Druze PSP leader Kamal Jumblatt in 1977. As Syria strengthened its hold on Lebanon, the COA was forced underground, since it refused to give up its alliance with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) of Yassir Arafat, who was opposed to the Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. The COA had strong relations to the Marxist Palestinian faction of Naif Hawatmeh, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and was involved with that group's party newspaper al-Hurriya (Liberty).
During 1982-2000, the COA allied, despite being a secular movement, to the Shi'a Islamist Hizbullah movement in its campaign of guerrilla warfare against Israeli occupation of South Lebanon.


Current for the Future

(Tayyar Al Mustaqbal) is a political movement in Lebanon, led by Saad Hariri, younger son of Rafik Hariri, the assassinated former prime minister of Lebanon. At the last legislative elections, May and June 2005, the movement was the main faction of the Rafik Hariri Martyr List, that won these elections. Current leader Saad Hariri had vowed to transform it into a political party at the completion of the 2005 legislative elections.


Democratic Left Movement (Lebanon)

By the late 1980s, the Syrian regime embarked on an assassination spree that resulted in purging known leftist intellectuals such as Hussein Mroue and Mahdi Amel among others. The Syrian purge was coupled with the downfall of the number one supporter of leftists in Lebanon, the Soviet Union. It also marked the beginning of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon that lasted until April 26, 2005.
Living under Syrian tutelage stirred a dilemma among the leftists' leadership, intellectuals' and rank and file. Should the left contend to this existence under the pretext of fending off external danger? Or should it seek democracy first as a means for the liberation of the Arab people and the key to fending off all kinds of danger, whether external or internal.
The leftist division survives to this day and has, since its eruption, witnessed several developments. The first and foremost of these developments was the resignation of George Hawi, the Lebanese Communist Party's (LCP) leader and strong figure, in 1992. Hawi was quoted as saying that he better "leave the boat before it wrecks," in reference to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Following Hawi, several communist voices started calling for the rejection of the soviet model and the revival of the party's role as a spearhead in the fight for Lebanon's sovereignty and independence.
The first breach among the leftists, however, occurred among the rank and file of students with the spontaneous creation of what came to be called as the Independent Leftist Groups. These groups scored some initial success which in turn encouraged opposition factions within the LCP to revolt against the leadership and start calling for the renewal of the structure, thought and perceptions of the left.
At the time, the gap between the LCP leadership and leftist intellectuals was further widening. To add insult to injury, the LCP leadership expelled a number of its student members in an attempt to shutdown opposition voices within the party.
The expelled students, however, had different ideas and showed signs of determination and strong will as they created what came to be known as the Communist Students Organization. The organization led to further breaches within the LCP.
Divisions within the LCP reached their climax in 2004 when during the Ninth Assembly; quasi-Stalinists found their way to top echelons of the leadership after the party witnessed wide mismanagement of its elections and democratic process. The undemocratic elections for their part saw officials tampering with membership lists in order to keep their loyalists enlisted while scratching the names of the supporters of their opponents.
This time, LCP's opposition factions walked out on their party and alongside other leftist intellectuals as well as the ILGs, formed what came to be known as the Democratic Left Movement.


Democratic Renewal (Lebanon)

The Democratic Renewal is a political party in Lebanon. At the last legislative elections, May and June 2005, the party was allied to the March-14 coalition, led by Future Movement of late Prime minister Rafic Hariri, that won these elections.
The Democratic Renewal was founded in 2001 by a group of 50 Lebanese political figures, intellectuals and businessmen. It is headed by Nassib Lahoud, a Presidential aspirant, deputy of the Metn region from 1991 until 2005.
The Democratic Renewal has currently one member in the Parliament, Misbah Ahdab of Tripoli in North Lebanon.


Free Patriotic Movement

The Free Patriotic Movement (Tayyar Al-Watani Al-Horr), is a Lebanese political party, led by General Michel Aoun, a former commander of the Lebanese army who served as Prime Minister of one of two governments that contended for power in the final years of the Lebanese civil war (1988 - 1990). The movement was officially declared a political party on September 18, 2005.
Most of the party's support comes from Lebanon's Christian community, but many Muslims also support the Free Patriotic Movement because it claims to be the only secular party in Lebanon.
For many years, while Aoun was exiled in Paris, he led the FPM from abroad. He returned to Lebanon in May 2005, and contested the legislative elections held in late May in early June. The Free Patriotic Movement and its allies won 21 seats in the 128-member National Assembly.
The FPM has drawn up a political program which contains economic and political plans to rebuild the Lebanese economy and enhance the authority of the government over all of Lebanon's territory.
On 6 February 2006, the FPM signed an agreement with Hezbollah Party. Among other matters, the disarmament of Hezbollah was agreed upon by both parties, subject to the Shebaa Farms, occupied by Israel and generally recognized internationally as belonging to Syria, being declared Lebanese territory. The agreement also discussed the importance of having normal deplomatic relations with Syria and the release of all political prisoners in Syria and Israel.


Front for Progressive Parties and National Forces

The Front for Progressive Parties and National Forces was a leftist organization that gatherered parties and organizations opposing the Maronite-dominated sectarian order in Lebanon. It was reorganized as the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) in the 1970s, and led by Kamal Jumblatt as the main force on the anti-government side in the early years of the Lebanese Civil War. Among the members were the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) and several Nasserist groups. It was also joined by Palestinian factions based in Lebanon's refugee camps, mainly from the radical Rejectionist Front.


Guardians of the Cedars

The Guardians of the Cedars are a right wing political movement and former militia in Lebanon. It was formed by Étienne Saqr and others along with the Lebanese Renewal Party in the early 1970s. It operated in the Lebanese Civil War under the slogan: No Palestinian will remain in Lebanon. This was officially amended to: It is the duty of each Lebanese to kill one Palestinian in June 1976.
The politics of Guardians of the Cedars is an extreme form of Lebanese nationalism which holds that the Lebanese are an ancient race and it is they, and not the Greeks, who are the founders of western civilisation. This has led Guardians of the Cedars to maintain that Lebanese people are not Arabs, indeed, to advocate the de-Arabisation of the Lebanon and call for the restoration of the Phoenician language and alphabet. As a consequence, the Guardians of the Cedars have adopted positions hostile to Pan-Arabism and to Arabs in general. Saqr himself had fought against Muslim rebel forces back in the Lebanon Crisis of 1958. Fiercely anti-Palestinian, they cultivated close ties with the Israeli military. Unlike the Phalangists and the Tigers, who both cooperated semi-secretly with Israel, the Guardians of the Cedars incorporated collaboration with Israel into their ideology. This was based on the conviction that there was a commonality of interest between the Jewish state and the Maronite cause. The attitude of Guardians of the Cedars to the Palestinian presence in Lebanon is apparent from the content of one of their leaflets distributed in Sidon: "Germs live only in rot. Let us prevent rot from infiltrating society. Let us continue the work of destruction of the last bastions of the Palestinians and smash whatever life is left in this poisonous snake."
The Guardians of the Cedars started to form a militia in the years leading up to the Lebanese Civil War and commenced military operations in April 1975. They joined with other Lebanese Christian and right-wing forces in 1976 to form the Lebanese Front. Guardians of the Cedars was able to field about 500-1000 fighters during the civil war. It was made up of mostly Christians, but also Druze and Shiite Lebanese.
The Guardians of the Cedars were allegedly involved in the massacre of Palestinians at Tel al-Zaatar refugee camp in 1976. Saqr summed the Guardians of the Cedars attitude to Palestinians in an interview with the Jerusalem Post on July 23 1982: "It is the Palestinians we have to deal with. Ten years ago there were 84,000; now there are between 600,000 and 700,000. In six years there will be two million. We can’t let it come to that." His solution: "Very simple. We shall drive them to the borders of ’brotherly’ Syria ... Anyone who looks back, stops or returns will be shot on the spot. We have the moral right, reinforced by well-organized public relations plans and political preparations."
It was in Sidon, during the Israeli occupation, that The Guardians of the Cedars were widely accused of acting as a death squad and were believed by many to be responsible for the murders and disappearances of hundreds of Palestinian civilians.
From the end of the civil war in 1990 until the Israeli withdawal from Lebanon in 2000 the Guardians of the Cedars formed an element of the South Lebanon Army. Since that date their military operations have ceased and they operate solely politically, campaigning to remove the Syrian presence in Lebanon. They have reorganized as a political party, but it remains banned in Lebanon.


Hezbollah

Hezbollah began to take shape during the 1982 Lebanon War; on February 16, 1985 Sheik Ibrahim al-Amin publicly declared the group's manifesto, which included three goals: the eradication of Western imperialism in Lebanon, the transformation of Lebanon's multi-confessional state into an Islamic state, and the complete destruction of the state of Israel. Although Hezbollah still believes in an Islamic republic like Iran, it finds it for now an inaccessibile goal in Lebanon. As a result, Nasrallah is trying to tone down the stark Shiite identity of his movement and replace it with Lebaneseness for its last remaining goal; its commitment to the complete destruction of Israel. Hezbollah receives arms, training, and financial support from Iran, and from many other Arab sympathizers and has "operated with Syria's blessing." Hezbollah, which started only with a militia, has grown to an organization which has seats in the Lebanese government, a radio and a satellite television station, and programs for social development.
Since 1992 the organization has been headed by Sheikh Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, its Secretary-General.
Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, the Netherlands and Israel consider Hezbollah, or its external security arm, a terrorist organization. All other countries do not list Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation and all Arab countries consider it a resistance organization. The European Union acknowledges that Hezbollah uses terrorist tactics but for political and other reasons does not list it as a terrorist organization. The terrorist label is controversial and highly political; as many Arab and Muslim states support Hezbollah's goals and consider it legitimate. Russia says that it doesn't list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization because it does not view Hezbollah as a threat to Russia's security. Human rights organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch accused Hezbollah of committing war crimes against Israeli civilians. Hezbollah's supporters justify the killing of Israeli civilians as reciprocal to Israeli crimes and retaliation for Israel's occupation of Lebanese territory


Independent Nasserist Organization

The Independent Nasserist Organization (INO, also known as al-Murabitun; Arabic Harakatu-l-naSiriyyīna-l-mustaqillīn) is a Nasserist political organization in Lebanon. Its motto was "Liberty, Socialism and Unity".
Formed in 1958, its membership was mainly composed by Muslims of both the Shi'a and the Sunni sects, and some Druze members, but often referred to as a Sunni movement. It was Arab socialist and secular, as well as radically pan-Arab and Arab nationalist, and although never a large movement it formed an important part of the opposition to the Maronite-dominated order in Lebanon. It was a member of the Front for Progressive Parties and National Forces, later reorganized as the Lebanese National Movement (LNM). It was a strong ally of the Palestinian movement.
It was one of a number of Nasserist movements, including the Movement of Unionist Nasserites, which split from the INO in 1982 under the leadership of Samir Sabbagh.
Before and during the Lebanese Civil War it organized an armed militia known as al-Murabitun, which held positions on the antigovernment side in West Beirut and Tripoli. The party was nearly destroyed and its leader, Ibrahim Kulaylat, forced into exile, after clashes with the Druze PSP and the Shi'a Amal Movement in 1985. The PSP had been an earlier ally of the INO, but was now urged into alliance with Amal by Syria, which had turned on the PLO, which was in turn allied with the INO.


Independent Nasserite Movement

The Independent Nasserite Movement (INM) was the oldest of several organizations in Lebanon that embraced the ideas of the late Egyptian president, Gamal Abdul Nasser. Despite its claims of nonsectarianism, the membership of the INM has been overwhelmingly Muslim; 1987 reports estimated it to be about 45-percent Sunni, 45- percent Shia, and 10- percent Druze. Its ideology was reflected by its motto: "Liberty, Socialism, and Unity."
The INM came to prominence in the 1958 Civil War and remained a strong force throughout the 1970s. At the height of the 1958 conflict, its militia, the Murabitun (Sentinels), clashed with the forces of pro-Western president Shamun. Consistent with its panArab ideals, the INM was a firm supporter of the Palestinian movement in Lebanon in the late 1960s. During this time, it reenforced the Murabitun. When the 1975 Civil War began, it was well positioned to play an active part. The Murabitun engaged Phalangist fighters in the most severe combat during the early stages of the war, and absorbed many casualties.
In the 1980s, the INM weathered difficult times. It fought with the Palestinians against the Israelis during the invasion of 1982 and with the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) against the Lebanese Army in the Shuf Mountains in 1983. Its alliance with the PSP was short lived, however. In 1985 a joint PSP-Amal campaign virtually eliminated the Murabitun as an important actor in Lebanon and forced INM leader, Ibrahim Kulaylat, into exile.

Lebanese Communist Party

One of the oldest multi-sectarian parties in Lebanon, the LCP was formed in 1924 by a group of intellectuals. The party was declared illegal by the French Mandate authorities in 1939, but the ban was relaxed in 1943. For about twenty years, this single organization controlled communist political activity in both Lebanon and Syria, but in 1944 separate parties were established in each country.
During the first two decades of independence, the LCP enjoyed little success. In 1943 the party participated in the legislative elections but failed to win any seats in the Chamber of Deputies. The LCP again ran for election in 1947, but all of its candidates were defeated; in 1948 it was outlawed. During the 1950s, the party's inconsistent policies on Pan-Arabism and the Nasserite movement cost it support and eventually isolated it. The party was active on the anti-government side during the 1958 uprising. Surviving underground, the LCP in 1965 decided to end its isolation and became a member of the Front for Progressive Parties and National Forces, which later evolved into the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) under Druze leftist leader Kamal Jumblatt.
The 1970s witnessed something of a resurgence of the LCP. In 1970 Kamal Jumblatt as Minister of the Interior legalized the party. This allowed many LCP leaders, including Secretary General Niqula Shawi, to run for election in 1972. Although they polled several thousand votes, none of them succeeded in claiming a seat. But the LCP's importance grew with the arrival of the civil disturbances of the mid-1970s.

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Lebanese Forces

The Lebanese Forces are a Lebanese political party and former militia, which played a major role in the civil war which ravaged Lebanon from 1975 to 1990. After the civil war ended, the movement reinvented itself as a political party, although its activities were severely restricted by the pro-Syrian government until the Cedar Revolution in early 2005 resulted in a withdrawal of Syrian troops. The movement is officially secular, but in practice has always been supported almost exclusively by Christians, especially Maronites. The LF used to be represented by the crucifix, however there were requests from priests to stop using it as a symbol of the Lebanese Forces because of their violent history.


Lebanese Front

The Lebanese Front was a right-wing coalition of mainly Christian parties during the Lebanese Civil War. It was intended to act as a counter force to the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) of Kamal Jumblatt and others.
Its main participants were the Kataeb Party (Phalange) of Pierre Gemayel, Suleiman Franjieh and his Marada Brigade, the National Liberal Party (NLP) of Camille Chamoun and the Guardians of the Cedars of Etienne Saqr. The founders of the coalition worked fine together for many years until the events of 1978.
Suleiman Franjieh's Marada ended its connection with the Lebanese Front in 1978, the year his son Tony and his family were killed. The Lebanese Forces unsuccessfully tried to take over the Marada by force. The Lebanese Forces violently took over their allies' militia component, the Ahrar Militia (The Tigers) in the early 1980's. The Ahrar, which led by the Chamoun family ended their connection with the Lebanese Front after the violent incident. There were times where Bashir Gemayel would exercise his powers over his brother Amin and his men.
The Lebanese Front was a lose political coalition, The members of this coalition broke off as Bashir Gemayel tried to absorb all members under his wing which lead to bloody attacks on his allies. Many believe this caused the breakup of the United Christian Lebanese Front as Bashir Gemayel also had fall outs with the prominent christian families which led to violence. The members of this coalition created a strong political alliance before the breakup.
As the Lebanese Forces developed, under the command of Bashir Gemayel, later in 1986 Samir Geagea, into one of the strongest militias of the war until Israel stopped funding them with arms in the early mid 80's. Then Samir Geagea led them to war with the General Michel Aoun and the Lebanses Army which led to the disarmament of the Lebanese Forces. The Lebanese Forces is presently a political party in the Lebanese Parliament. The LF currently hold 5 seats (they control 4.0% in parliament) of the 128 seats available in the Lebanese Parliament.
In the last few years there have been continual attempts to rebuild the coalitian that existed before the incidents of 1978.


Lebanese Renewal Party

The Lebanese Renewal Party (LRP) is a banned political party in Lebanon formed in 1972 as the political arm of the paramilitary force known as the Guardians of the Cedars. It is often characterized as right-wing extremist, but by its followers as a patriotic nationalist movement. Its membership is almost exclusively Christian, but it is a secular organization. The party is still led by its founder, Étienne Saqr (Abu Arz).
It was formed by right-wing activists opposed to the presence of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The refugee population also included a substantial element of Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) fighters, especially after the 1970 Black September events in Jordan. This created severe tension in Lebanon, and is believed by many to have been a driving factor behind the outbreak of civil war in 1975.
During the Lebanese Civil War, the party and its militia was a small but active part of the Maronite-led alliance fighting the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) of Kamal Jumblatt, and its Palestinian allies in the Rejectionist Front and PLO. During the early fighting in the war, the party was implicated in the massacres of Karantina and Tel al-Zaatar. In 1977, the main Christian-backed militias (LRP plus the National Liberal Party and the Kataeb Party) formed the Lebanese Front coalition. Their militias joined under the name of the Lebanese Forces, but the Lebanese Forces soon fell under the command of Bashir Gemayel and the Phalange. The LNR and the Guardians of the Cedars were uncompromisingly opposed to the Syrian presence in Lebanon.
After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the party cooperated with Israeli forces, and its militia joined the South Lebanon Army (SLA). After the withdrawal of Israel from Lebanon in 2000, most of the leadership fled to Israel. The group was banned by the Syrian-dominated government and decided to give up its arms to become a traditional political party. It remains banned, and is only a minor force in national life. Still, some of the rhetoric used by the LRP in advocating its domestic policies was revived during the Cedar Revolution in 2005, which forced the withdrawal of Syria from Lebanon and led to expectations of political reform.


National Liberal Party (Lebanon)

The National Liberal Party (NLP, Arabic Hizbu-l-waTaniyyīni-l-aHrār) is a political party in Lebanon, established by President Camille Chamoun in 1958. It is now under the leadership of Dory Chamoun, his son.
The party has adopted a hard line in regard to the preservation of Lebanese independence, and to the safeguard of the distinctive liberal practices in Lebanon with respect to freedom of expression and opinion and religious freedoms. Like most Lebanese political organization, it has a sectarian basis; the NLP is mainly supported by Christians. (For more information on this, see Demographics of Lebanon)
During the Lebanese Civil War of 1975-90, the NLP was aligned with the mainly Maronite Christian alliance who fought the Lebanese National Movement (LNM). It had its own armed militia, the Tigers. In 1977, the NLP joined with the Kataeb Party (Phalange) and the Lebanese Renewal Party (LRP) to form the Lebanese Front, a political coalition. This was parallelled by the joining of the militias under a central command, the Lebanese Forces, headed by Phalange leader Bashir Gemayel. In 1980, Gemayel turned on the Tigers, and in a surprise attack in Safra eliminated the militia on request of Camille Chamoun some say. The NLP has survived as a party, however.
In 2005 the NLP was part of the Qornet Shehwan Gathering, opposed to the Syrian presence in Lebanon, but later left because of what it alleged was "corruption" in this gathering.


Progressive Socialist Party

The Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) (Arabic al-hizb al-taqadummi al-ishtiraki) is a political party in Lebanon. Its current leader is Walid Jumblatt. It is ideologically secular and officially non-sectarian, but in practice is led and supported mostly by followers of the Druze faith.
The party was founded on 5 January 1949, and registered on 17 March the same year, under notification N°789. The founders comprised six individuals, all of different backgrounds. The most notable of these was Kamal Jumblatt (Walid Jumblatt's father). The others were Farid Joubran, Albert Adeeb, Abdallah Alayli, Fouad Rizk, and Georges Hanna.
The PSP held in Beirut the first conference for the Socialist Arab Parties in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Iraq in 1951. From 1951 through 1972 the party had between three and six deputies in parliament.
The PSP under Kamal Jumblatt was a major element in the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) which supported Lebanon's Arab identity and sympathised with the Palestinians. Despite Jumblatt's initial reluctance to engage in paramilitarism, it built a powerful private army, which proved to be one of the strongest in the Lebanese Civil War of 1975 to 1990. It conquered much of Mount Lebanon and the Chouf District. Its main adversaries were the Maronite Christian Phalangist militia, and later the Lebanese Forces militia (which absorbed the Phalangists). The PSP suffered a major setback in 1977, when Kamal Jumblatt was assassinated. His son Walid succeeded him as leader of the party.
From the Israeli withdrawal from the Chouf in 1983 to the end of the civil war, the PSP ran a highly effective civil administration, the Civil Administration of the Mountain, in the area under its control. Tolls levied at PSP militia checkpoints provided a major source of income for the administration, which succeeded in providing a high standard of social and public services.
Since the restoration of constitutional rule in 1989, PSP leader Walid Jumblatt participated in a number of governments, but later joined the opposition and took up a position opposed to the role of Syria in Lebanon's politics. Unlike some opponents of the Syrian presence, he did not oppose the presence of the Syrian army per se, but contended that the Syrian intelligence services were exerting undue influence.
Following the passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559, calling for a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, Jumblatt was particularly prominent in the opposition; however, he was opposed to the demand that Hezbollah be disarmed, and insisted on maintaining relations with the Islamist party.


Qornet Shehwan Gathering

The Qornet Shehwan Gathering is a Lebanese political organization, comprising politicians, intellectuals, and businessmen, mostly Christian and ranging in ideology from the centre-right to the center-left. The organization is not a political party in the classical sense: its members belong to, and in some cases lead, a variety of political parties. It is more of a loose coalition, although whether it intends to organize electorally is unclear. The coalition adheres to seven principles and pursues five objectives.
The coalition takes it name from the town of its headquarters, Qornet Shehwan, a town in the Metn district of Mount Lebanon and the seat of the Maronite Archbishopric of Al Metn. It was founded on April 30, 2001 by total of 29 individuals, representing political parties and civic organizations, as well as independents, with the blessing of the Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir. Membership (see below) has fluctuated since, as some founding members and parties are no longer affiliated. Even Patriarch Sfeir retreated from his earlier endorsement of the group (under government pressure, some allege) to a less partisan stance. Some who have left continue to work with the coalition informally, however.
As a prelude to a full withdrawal of Syrian troops, the Qornet Shehwan originally called for their redeployment to the Bekaa Valley. In the wake of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on 14 February 2005, however, the Qornet Shehwan has escalated its campaign to call for the immediate withdrawal of Syrian military and intelligence forces from Lebanon, and for fresh parliamentary and presidential elections to be held, free from foreign interference. Qornet Shehwan member and parliamentarian Samir Frangieh said on March 16, 2005 that parliamentary elections must precede presidential ones, because the current parliament (elected in 2000 and allegedly gerrymandered to produce a pro-Syrian majority), would be likely to elect another pro-Syrian President to succeed Emile Lahoud, whom the opposition considers to be a Syrian puppet.


Social Democrat Hunchakian Party

The Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, also known as the Hentchak, is the oldest political party in Armenia. It was founded in 1887 by Avetis Nazarbekian, Mariam Vardanian, Gevorg Gharadjian, Ruben Khan-Azat, Christopher Ohanian, Gabriel Kafian and Manuel Manuelian, a group of college students in Geneva, Switzerland, with the goal was to gain Armenia's independence from the Ottoman Empire. Its name, taken from its newspaper Hunchak, means "Bell" in English, and is taken by party members to represent "awakening, enlightenment, and freedom." Party members took part in the Battle of Sartarabad, which defended the Armenian capital of Yerevan from Turkish invaders.
In the early 1990s, the party took part in the fight to separate Nagorno Karabakh from Azerbaijan. The party today forms part of the opposition "Justice" bloc.
This party is also active in Lebanon, where it competes for the six National Assembly seats reserved for ethnic Armenians. The party subscribes to a socialist ideology and advocates a planned economy for Lebanon. In the 1950s, it clashed, sometimes violently, with the Tashnak Party, which it saw as a right-wing party (unlike the international movement, which is committed to socialism, the Lebanese branch of the Tashnak is pro-capitalist). In the midst of increasing sectarian strife in the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, Lebanon's Armenian community began to close ranks, and in 1972, the Hunchakian Party ran a joint ticket with the Tashnaks. In 2000, the Hunchakian Party joined forces with Rafik Hariri's Dignity List, which swept the city of Beirut.


Syrian Social Nationalist Party

The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) is a nationalist political party in Syria and Lebanon. It advocates the establishment of a Greater Syrian national state, including present Syria, Lebanon, Cilicia, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Cyprus, Jordan, Kuwait and Iraq.
Founded in Beirut in 1932, the party has played a significant role in Lebanese politics at various points, notably being involved in attempted coups in 1949 and 1961. It was active in resistance against the Israeli occupation of Lebanon from 1982 on. It is now part of the pro-Syrian bloc, along with Amal and Hezbollah, and has only limited popular support in Lebanon. In Syria, the SSNP became a major political force in the early 1950s, but was thoroughly repressed in 1955. It remained organised, and in 2005 was legalised and joined the Baath Party-led National Progressive Front. It is thought to be the largest legal party in Syria apart from the Baath, with perhaps 90,000 members.


Syrian-Lebanese Communist Party

Syrian-Lebanese Communist Party, a communist political party operating in Syria and Lebanon founded in 1924. Its general secretary was Khalid Bakdash.
Later the party was divided into the Syrian Communist Party and the Lebanese Communist Party.


Tripoli Bloc

The Tripoli Bloc is one of the blocs presents in the Lebanese Parliament. All members (3 muslims and two christians) are deputies from Tripoli (Lebanon). At the last legislative elections, May and June 2005, The bloc was an ally of the Rafik Hariri Martyr List, that won these elections.

Reference: Lebanese Civil War "The Biggest Lebanese Civil War Encyclopedia"

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Marada Movement

The Marada institution, founded in the 1960s by Pr. Suleiman Frangieh is a feudal organization headed by the Frangieh family and their allies mostly in the Zgharta caza and also throughout most of North Lebanon.
Marada had a military wing during the civil war that was very present in north Lebanon, it was also acctually one of the founders of the lebanese front even though it withrawed from it in 1978 which led to the assassination of The Marada Militia's leader Tony Frangieh, his wife, daughter and 30 men in a massacre led by Bachir Gemayel and Samir Geagea called the Ehden Massacre.
In 1988 Suleiman Frangieh Jr. son of the assassinated Tony and grandson of Pr. Frangieh took over Marada from his uncle, Robert Frangieh.
Marada supported the presence of Syrian troops in Lebanon and was a long time ally of the Syrian regime.
In 2005, They allied with General Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement in the elections but did not win any seats due to an unfair electoral law.
The Marada institution officialy became a political movement on June 13th 2006, it's goals were to affirm Lebanon's Arab entity and especially the Arab entity of the christians of Lebanon.

Independance Movmement

The Independance Movement is a feudal political party founded in 2007 by Michel Mouawad, son of late President Renée Mouawad.
The Movement considers some little support in the town of Zgharta but has no real influence on the larger lebanese scene.
It is part of the Hariri-lead 14th March Alliance.

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Worker's League/Rabitat Al-Shaghila/ رابطة الشغيلة


The Worker's League is a Lebanese pro-Syrian political party founded in 1968 by a group of AUB students and is led by former Chouf MP Zaher Khatib.

The party promotes communism and Arab nationalism, it has had members in the Lebanese Parliament on several occasions. From 2000 to 2005 their member Nasser Qandil represented Beirut 3 electoral district. The party also had a military force, Qoowat Zafer el Khatib, during the Lebanese civil war which had considerable force and was part of Kamal Jumblatt's Lebanese National Movement.