UN report
Israel Invasion

A Small Salute to a Great Man....Raffik Harreri

• Oct.27, 2006: Israel has for the first time admitted it used controversial phosphorus shells during fighting against Hezbollah in Lebanon in July and August.

  Cabinet minister Jacob Edery confirmed the bombs were used. Israel had previously said the weapons were used only to mark targets.

  Phosphorus weapons cause chemical burns and the Red Cross and human rights groups say they should be treated as chemical weapons.

  The Geneva Conventions ban the use of white phosphorus as an incendiary weapon against civilian populations and in air attacks against military forces in civilian areas.

   

• Oct.27, 2006: Up to 15,000 metric tonnes of heavy fuel oil spilled into the Mediterranean when Lebanon's Jiyyeh power plant was bombed in mid-July by the Israeli military.
• Sept. 28, 2006: Israel has dropped over 1 million cluster bombs over 100 sites in Lebanon. many innocent civilians mostly children get killed and injured everyday.

The UN's humanitarian chief has accused Israel of "completely immoral" use of cluster bombs in Lebanon. Most of these bombs were fired on the last day of the war , which clearly indicate Israel intention of causing the highest civilian causalities. UN clearance experts had so far found 100,000 unexploded cluster bomblets at 359 separate sites. Soldiers in IDF ( Isreali defence Forces) artillery units testified that the army used phosphorous shells during the war, widely forbidden by international law. According to their claims, the vast majority of said explosive ordinance was fired in the final 10 days of the war. Also they stated that over 1.2 million cluster bombs were fired at Lebanon. International law forbids the use of weapons that cause "excessive injury and unnecessary suffering".

• Aug.28, 2006: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that if he had known the capture of two Israeli soldiers would lead to such a war, he wouldn't have ordered it. What kind of stupidity from a man who caused death and destruction to Lebanon, now he seems to free his conscious.

• Aug.28, 2006: Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah have reached a deal brokered by Germany for a prisoner exchange to take place within two or three weeks. Then why such a war and destruction that crippled a country causing over 1100 civilians dead in Lebanon ad 170 soldier killed in Israel and over 800,000 displaced civilians and almost total destruction of south Lebanon. The only country who benefited from this war was Syria.

• July 21, 2006: Israel is attacking Lebanese civilian targets since July 12 in the pretext of fighting Hezbollah. Roads, airport , sea port , gas stations , milk factories and apartments buildings and shopping area are completely destroyed by Israeli Air War.

Israel is planning for a ground invasion of southern Lebanon , which has just started and also plan to stay there for a long time.

• July 20, 2006: CNN & Fox news are giving more air time showing how Israeli civilians are suffering and are making interviews with Jews or pr-Israeli personalities in US , attacking and making wrong remarks against the Lebanese people , who are actually the victim not the aggressor. The US media , is justifying the Israeli action to the world. No justification can be given for killing civilians, whether Lebanese or Israeli, and this non sense must be stopped by world leaders.

• Feb.7, 2006: Lebanon's interior minister resigned on Sunday after thousands of angry Muslim protesters torched the Danish consulate in Beirut and damaged property in a Christian area in riots over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

• Dec.13, 2005: A car bomb killed Lebanese anti-Syrian lawmaker and press baron Gebran Tueni  a day after he returned to Lebanon from France. Four others were killed in the massive explosion that wrecked Tueini’s armored vehicle when it passed by a car parked on the side of the road in Beirut’s Christian suburb of Mkalles. Security sources said the bomb containing 100 kg of explosives was detonated by remote control.

• May 5, 2005: Prime Minister Najib Meqati, of Lebanon has made a visit to Syria, after forming the new government. This has been explained as a continous indication of Syrian domination on Lebanon politics. It’s considered bad timing for such a visit. Perhaps a visit to Saudia Arabia and Egypt was better received. This visit to Syria indicates that Lebanon government still ask for the permission and blessing of Syrian government before and after taking any political steps. Bad move Mr. Meqati.

• May 2, 2005: The new Lebanese government has replaced several pro-Syrian security chiefs and the public prosecutor. The move was a key opposition demand following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri

April 26, 2005: The withdrawal of Syrian intelligence commander ( Rustom Ghazala) from Lebanon , today , signal the last Syrian pullout. Rustom Ghazala was the actual ruler in Lebanon. Now Lebanese are demanding that Syria release many Lebanese citizens detained in Syria for a long time and without reason.

Read the UN report on Mr. Hariri assassination

• April 22, 2005: Saad Harreri, son of Rafik Harreri (the assassinated Prime Minister of Lebanon), has visited France President and requested the support of France for free Lebanon and for his possible political career, taking his father steps.

   

• April 16, 2005: Lebanon's president on Friday named moderate pro-Syrian lawmaker NAJEEB Mikati as prime minister, breaking a political deadlock and reviving chances for holding parliamentary elections next month. Mikati, 49, who was first elected to parliament in 2000, has recently distanced himself from the pro-Syrian camp. He still maintains business ties to Syria as well as a personal relationship with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

   
• April 13, 2005: Lebanon’s pro-Syrian prime minister quit on Wednesday, abandoning efforts to form a government to lead the country to general elections. This comes as there is a power struggle between the pro-Syrian government mafia trying to delay forming a new government and therefore delaying the new election. It seems the pro Syrian chosen ministers are struggling to get the top post to extort more benefits before the new parliament quick them out.
• March 24, 2005: A JUDGE charged with investigating the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Prime Minister of Lebanon, resigned yesterday. He said that he had been handed a case file containing neither evidence nor any names of potential suspects. The Lebanese authorities have been harshly criticized for their failure to protect the scene of the bombing. The 10ft-deep crater caused by the blast was rapidly filled in and the bodies of two victims of the blast were discovered only days later.
• March 19, 2005 A car bomb exploded north Beirut early Saturday, injuring seven people, damaging parked cars and shops, shattering windows for several blocks; and raising fears that more attacks would be targeting the Lebanese capital the coming days or weeks.

• March 17, 2005: The Lebanese security chief yesterday offered to stand trial to clear allegations of negligence in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Jamil Al-Sayyed, head of the General Security Directorate, however, rejected opposition calls for intelligence officers to quit, saying they would do so only if the opposition won power.

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  March.15, 2005: Over 1 million demonstrated their protest in central Beirut against the Syrian presence in Lebanon and . The protest, potentially the biggest in Lebanon's history, easily exceeded the pro-government rally of some 500,000 held last week by the Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah. The demonstrators chanted anti Syrian statements and against President LaHood of Lebanon.

• March.15, 2005: Lebanese police removed public portraits of the Syrian leadership Tuesday as Syrian intelligence units began pulling out of Beirut a day after over a million people rallied for a full Syrian withdrawal.

   

• March.14, 2005: The exiled former Lebanese army chief Michel Aoun plans to return to Lebanon within the next two weeks to prepare for May's general elections.

   

• March, 10, 2005: Lebanon's president has asked the pro-Syrian former prime minister to form a new government, 10 days after he resigned amid anti-Syrian protests. This is another political joke by Lebanon President Emil LaHood. The opposition seem to have lost their strong stand after the Lebanese Shiite show of support to Syria.

• Feb.29,2005: Lebanon's Prime Minister Omar Karami has announced he and his government are resigning, two weeks after the murder of former PM Rafik Hariri. The move comes as crowds protest in Beirut, calling for Syrian troops to leave the country. The Lebanese parliament was also debating an opposition-sponsored motion of no-confidence in the government. A cheer went up among more than 10,000 protesters who had gathered in Martyrs Square to demand the resignation of the government and the withdrawal of Syrian troops. New interim government will be chosen that meets the approval of opposition leaders. It will govern until elections, which are due in spring. Before the debate opened, MPs observed a minute's silence in memory of Mr. Hariri. There was a call for the dismissal of three Lebanese intelligence chiefs, the head of the police and the commander of the Presidential Guards.

• Feb 27,2005:   A statue of the late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad in a Lebanese village has been vandalized in the latest anti-Syrian act since the assassination of ex-premier Rafik Hariri. The village of Qana is under the control of the rival pro-Syrian Shiite Muslim movements of Amal and Hezbollah. Soon this will happen in Syria with the destruction of Ruling Bath arty and the Assad Dynasty.

Feb.22, 2005: Huge demonstration against Syria presence in Lebanon and as many Lebanese blame Syrian government and the Pro Syrian government of Lebanon for the killing of Prime Minister Harreri in valentine day ( Feb.14, 2005).

Following is a list of key events during the 29-year presence of Syrian troops in Lebanon, which had reached a high of 35,000 by the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990.

1975
April - Clashes, viewed as the start of Lebanon's 15-year-long civil war, erupt in Beirut.

1976
June - Syrian troops enter Lebanon to restore peace but also to curb an advance by the Palestinians and Muslim camps against the Christians. Oct - After Arab summits in Riyadh and Cairo, a ceasefire is arranged and a
predominantly Syrian Arab Deterrent Force established to maintain it, with an Arab League mandate.

1978
March 14 - Israel launches major invasion of Lebanon, occupying land as far north as the Litani river, south of Beirut, in reprisal for a Palestinian attack into its territory.
March 19 - UN Security Council passes Resolution 425 calling on Israel to withdraw from all Lebanese territory, and establishing the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to confirm the withdrawal.
June 13 - Israel hands over territory in southern Lebanon to its proxy, a mainly Christian Lebanese militia, ignoring UNIFIL.

1982
June 6 - After attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador to Britain, Israel launches full-scale invasion of Lebanon.
Sept 15 - Israeli troops occupy mainly Muslim west Beirut.
Sept 16-18 - Phalangist militia slaughter Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in west Beirut, under eyes of Israeli forces.
Sept 24 - First US, French and Italian peacekeeping force arrives in Beirut.

1983
May 17 - Israel and Lebanon sign accord on Israeli withdrawal, establishing a security region in southern Lebanon.

1984
March 4 - Under Syrian pressure, Lebanon cancels May 1983 agreement with Israel.

1985
June - Most Israeli troops withdraw but some remain to support its proxy force -- the mainly Christian South Lebanon Army (SLA), led by Antoine Lahad.

1988
Sept - Lebanon has two governments -- one mainly Muslim in west Beirut, and
one Christian, in east Beirut led by Maronite General Michel Aoun.

1989
March 14 - Aoun declares a "war of liberation" against the Syrian presence.
October - Lebanese national assembly, meeting in the Saudi mountain resort of Taef endorses a Charter of National Reconciliation, which leads to the end of the civil war. Taef agreement calls for a Syrian ullback to the eastern
Bekaa Valley, but does not set a date for the full pullout.

1990
Oct 13 - Syrian airforces attacks presidential palace and Aoun takes refuge in French embassy, events regarded as marking the end of the civil war.

1993
July 25 - Israel attempts to end the threat from Hezbollah and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, in southern Lebanon by launching "Operation Accountability", the heaviest attack since 1982.

1996
April 11 - Israelis bomb Hezbollah bases in southern Lebanon, southern part of Beirut and the Bekaa Valley, in "Operation Grapes of Wrath".
April 18 - Israeli attack on UN base results in death of over 100 Lebanese refugees taking shelter there.
April 26 - US negotiates a truce an "understanding" under which Hezbollah and Palestinian guerrillas agree not to attack civilians in northern Israel but recognises Hezbollah's right to resist the Israeli occupation. Lebanon and
Syria do not sign up to this but become part of the Israel-Lebanon Monitoring Group, along with US, France and Israel.

1998
Oct 15: General Emile Lahoud, backed by Syria, is elected president by parliament.

2000
May 24 - After collapse of the South Lebanon Army and rapid advance of Hezbollah forces, Israel withdraws its troops from Lebanon.

2001
June - Syria redeploys some of its forces in Lebanon.

2002
April - Syria again scales back some of its forces.

2003
Feb and July - Syria carries out two more troop reployments, bringing the figure down to between 16,000 and 18,000 soldiers.April - Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri forms a new government.

2004
May 11: US imposes sanctions on Syria
Sept 2: UN Security Council adopts Resolution 1559 calling for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Lebanon and respect for its sovereignty.
Sept 3: Lebanese parliament approves a controversial constitutional amendment giving Lahoud another three years in office.
Sept 21 - Syrian forces evacuate military posts as part of the troop pullback eastwards towards the Syrian border.
Oct 20 - Hariri resigns as prime minster in protest at the dominant political role of Damascus in his country to be replaced by pro-Syrian deputy Omar Karameh six days later.
Dec 13: For the first time since 1975, a united opposition denounces the Syrian presence and calls for the government to resign.
Dec 18: Syria dismantles its secret service in Lebanon, admitting its presence in the country for the first time. They close posts at Beirut international airport, near the Palestinian refugee camp of Burj al-Barajneh, and in Batroun.

2005
Feb 14 - Hariri assassinated in a massive bomb explosion that struck his motorcade on Beirut seafront, also killing 17 other people.
Feb 15 - The UN Security Council requests an urgent report into the "terrorist" assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister and again presses Syria to pull its forces out of the country.
Feb 21 - US President George W. Bush and French President Jacques Chirac unite in calling for a Syrian troop withdrawal from Lebanon.
Feb 23 - Bush says Damascus will also have to withdraw its intelligence agents from its tiny neighbour.
Feb 24 - Syria due to redeploy its troops towards the border.