Progressive Socialist Party
Encyclopedia
The Progressive Socialist Party or PSP , also known as Parti Socialiste Progressiste in French
, 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.
(Walid Jumblatt's father). The others were Farid Joubran, Albert Adeeb, Abdallah Alayli, Fouad Rizk, and George 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.http://ddc.aub.edu.lb/projects/pspa/krayem/krayem.html
(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 Kataeb Regulatory Forces
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.
The PSP played an important role in the so-called "Mountain War" under the lead of Walid Jumblatt: after the Israeli Army retreated from the Lebanese Mountain, important battles took place between the PSP and Christian militias. PSP armed members were accused of several massacres that took place during that war (31 August 1983: 36 civilians in Bmahray, 7 September 1983: 200 Christian civilians killed in Bhamdoun, 10 September 1983: 64 in Bireh, 10 September 1983: 30 in Ras el-Matn, 11 September 1983: 15 in Maasser Beit ed-Dine, 11 September 1983: 36 in Chartoun, 13 September 1983: 84 in Maasser el-Chouf, and many others...).
was raised early in 1976 with the help of Fatah
and initially comprised 3,000 lightly armed fighters drawn from the Druze and Shia Muslim communities of the Shouf. Other sources however, place its numbers as high as 5,000.
At this stage a predominantely infantry force provided with light weapons drawn from PLO stocks or pilfered from LAF
and ISF
barracks
, the PSP militia also fielded by 1977 a small mechanized corps made of gun-trucks (Land-Rovers and Toyota Land Cruisers, GMC
, Ford, Mitsubishi
and Nissan light pick-ups, plus Mercedes-Benz
Unimog
light trucks) equipped with heavy machine guns, recoilless rifles, and Anti-aircraft autocannons. Neutral during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon
of June 1982, the PLA was quietly re-organized and expanded late that year by Walid Jumblatt, who turned it into a disciplined fighting force structured along conventional lines, with ‘Commando
’, armoured
, mechanized infantry
and artillery
units provided with Soviet-made armoured vehicles, field guns, Howitzers and MBRLs.
Heaquartered at the Druze town of Baakline in the Shouf, the PSP militia by 1983 aligned 17,000 troops – 5,000 uniformed regulars, backed by 12,000 male and female reservists staffed by a qualified, Soviet-trained Officer corps. It was subsequently enlarged in the wake of the Mountain War, with the inclusion of 960 Druze soldiers (900 privates, plus 60 Officers and NCOs) of the Lebanese Army’s Fourth Brigade
after its disintegration in September 1983.
This allowed the PLA to seize seven US-made M48A5
main battle tank
s (MBTs) and a number of M113
APCs for its own armoured corps, further strengthened in 1985 with the arrival of some 70 T-54/55 MBTs, BTR-60
and BMP-1
APCs supplied on loan by Syria
and the USSR, which they employed in the War of the Camps
waged that same year against Nasserite and PLO militias in west Beirut.
They also fielded a powerful artillery corps equipped with Soviet 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30) and 130 mm towed field gun M1954 (M-46)
pieces, along with truck-mounted BM-11 130 mm and towed BM-12
(Chinese Type 63
) 107 mm MBRLs, coupled by Man-portable, shoulder-launched Soviet SAM-7 ‘Grail’ AA missiles which were used to bring down two Lebanese Air Force
Hawker Hunter
fighter jets during the 1983-84 ‘Mountain War’.
(the Jumblatt family’ feudal seat near Beiteddine), Deir al-Qamar, Aley
, and Bhamdoun
. At west Beirut, the PSP controlled since May 1985 the Druze-populated Karakol quarter, parts of Rue Hamra and a large portion of Rue Watta el-Msaytbi; the latter a small Druze street that housed the Party’s main political offices in the capital city.
A well-organized civil service network, the ‘Civilian Administration of the Mountain’ (CAM), was set up on October 1, 1983 at Beiteddine, headed by an eight-man supreme council that included a central committee and a general congress. The CAM's own 23 bureaus provided everything from education to medical care and also employed 2,000 seasonal workers in agricultural and industrial projects in the Shouf.
Upon the inclusion of the Iqlim al-Kharrub coastal enclave south of Beirut into the canton in 1984-85, a Druze-run ‘Holding’, the COGECO group, was made responsible for running illegal activities at the ports of Jiyeh and Khalde
, including importation of fuel from Iran
, drug-trafficking and gambling
at clandestine permises.
Beiteddine was also the home of the PSP media services, responsible for editing its official newspaper (Arabic: Al-Anba’a) and operated their own radio station, the "Voice of the Mountain" (Arabic: Iza’at Sawt al-Djabal) or "La Voix de la Montaigne" in French
. In addition to Palestinian
and Syrian backing, the PSP/PLA received further military assistance from Libya
and the USSR, whilst the expatriated Druze community in the United States
provided financial support.
. PSP participated in a number of governments, but, after the Syrian Accountability Act and the UN Resolution 1559 and the change of the balance of powers in the region after the occupation of Iraq, 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 Shia Islamist party. Later, he has drifted into sharp opposition towards the group, and has decided to support their disarmament, claiming that Syria
and Iran
are trying to take over Lebanon through Hezbollah.
Walid Jumblat called for dismantling of the communications system of Hizbollah on May 5, 2008, which created a huge response from Hizbollah and its allies. There were clashed on May 7, 2008, as Hezbollah militia took Beirut. The situation was calmed, after both parties negotiated and reached an agreement at Doha
in Qatar
on May 16, 2008.
In late January 2011, Jumblatt declared that he supported the Hezbollah and Syria stance. Currently PSP, Hezbollah and several other Lebanese political parties share a "national unity government
" in Lebanon
.
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, is a political party in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
. Its current leader is Walid Jumblatt
Walid Jumblatt
Walid Jumblatt is a Lebanese politician and the current leader of the Progressive Socialist Party . He is the most prominent leader of Lebanon's Druze community.-Family:...
. It is ideologically secular and officially non-sectarian, but in practice is led and supported mostly by followers of the Druze
Druze
The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...
faith.
Origins
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 JumblattKamal Jumblatt
Kamal Jumblatt ; was an important Lebanese politician. He was the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War until his assassination in 1977. He is the father of the present Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.-Family background and education:Kamal Jumblatt was born in...
(Walid Jumblatt's father). The others were Farid Joubran, Albert Adeeb, Abdallah Alayli, Fouad Rizk, and George Hanna.
The PSP held in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
the first conference for the Socialist Arab Parties in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
in 1951. From 1951 through 1972 the party had between three and six deputies in parliament.http://ddc.aub.edu.lb/projects/pspa/krayem/krayem.html
The PSP in the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990)
Under Kamal Jumblatt's leadership, the PSP was a major element in the Lebanese National MovementLebanese National Movement
The Lebanese National Movement or Mouvement National Libanais in French, was a front of parties and organizations active during the early years of the Lebanese Civil War...
(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
Lebanese Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...
of 1975 to 1990. It conquered much of Mount Lebanon
Mount Lebanon
Mount Lebanon , as a geographic designation, is a Lebanese mountain range, averaging above 2,200 meters in height and receiving a substantial amount of precipitation, including snow, which averages around four meters deep. It extends across the whole country along about , parallel to the...
and the Chouf District
Chouf District
Chouf is a historic region of Lebanon, as well as an administrative district in the governorate of Mount Lebanon....
. Its main adversaries were the Maronite Christian Phalangist Kataeb Regulatory Forces
Kataeb Regulatory Forces
The Kataeb Regulatory Forces – KRF or RF , Forces Regulatoires du Kataeb in French were the military wing of the right-wing Lebanese Christian Kataeb Party, otherwise known as the Phalange, from 1961 to 1977...
militia, and later the Lebanese Forces
Lebanese Forces
The Lebanese Forces is a Lebanese political party. Founded as a militia by Bachir Gemayel during the Lebanese Civil War, the movement fought as the main militia within the Christian-dominated Lebanese Front...
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.
The PSP played an important role in the so-called "Mountain War" under the lead of Walid Jumblatt: after the Israeli Army retreated from the Lebanese Mountain, important battles took place between the PSP and Christian militias. PSP armed members were accused of several massacres that took place during that war (31 August 1983: 36 civilians in Bmahray, 7 September 1983: 200 Christian civilians killed in Bhamdoun, 10 September 1983: 64 in Bireh, 10 September 1983: 30 in Ras el-Matn, 11 September 1983: 15 in Maasser Beit ed-Dine, 11 September 1983: 36 in Chartoun, 13 September 1983: 84 in Maasser el-Chouf, and many others...).
Military structure and organisation
The PSP military wing, the People’s Liberation Army – PLA (Arabic: Jayish al-Tahrir al-Sha’aby) or Armée de Libération Populaire (ALP) in FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
was raised early in 1976 with the help of Fatah
Fatah
Fataḥ is a major Palestinian political party and the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization , a multi-party confederation. In Palestinian politics it is on the left-wing of the spectrum; it is mainly nationalist, although not predominantly socialist. Its official goals are found...
and initially comprised 3,000 lightly armed fighters drawn from the Druze and Shia Muslim communities of the Shouf. Other sources however, place its numbers as high as 5,000.
At this stage a predominantely infantry force provided with light weapons drawn from PLO stocks or pilfered from LAF
Lebanese Armed Forces
The Lebanese Armed Forces or Forces Armées Libanaises in French, also known as the Lebanese Army according to its official Website The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) (Arabic: القوات المسلحة اللبنانية | Al-Quwwāt al-Musallaḥa al-Lubnāniyya) or Forces Armées Libanaises in French, also known as the...
and ISF
Internal Security Forces
The Internal Security Forces – ISF or Forces de Sécurité Intérieure in French, are the national police and security force of Lebanon. Modern police were established in Lebanon in 1861, with creation of the Gendarmerie...
barracks
Barracks
Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...
, the PSP militia also fielded by 1977 a small mechanized corps made of gun-trucks (Land-Rovers and Toyota Land Cruisers, GMC
GMC
GMC may refer to:* Ganglion mother cell, a cell in the developing nervous system that divides once to produce two neurons* General motion control, a field of motion control concerned with single- and multi-axis motion controllers, intelligent drives, servo and stepper motors* Generalized Method of...
, Ford, Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi
The Mitsubishi Group , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company that consists of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...
and Nissan light pick-ups, plus Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
Unimog
Unimog
Unimog is a range of multi-purpose auto four wheel drive medium trucks produced by Mercedes-Benz, a division of Daimler AG. The name Unimog is pronounced in German and is an acronym for the German "UNIversal-MOtor-Gerät", Gerät being the German word for machine or device...
light trucks) equipped with heavy machine guns, recoilless rifles, and Anti-aircraft autocannons. Neutral during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon
Israeli invasion of Lebanon
The Israeli invasion of Lebanon could refer to:*The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the 1978 South Lebanon conflict;*The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the 1982 Lebanon War;*The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the 1993 Lebanon War;...
of June 1982, the PLA was quietly re-organized and expanded late that year by Walid Jumblatt, who turned it into a disciplined fighting force structured along conventional lines, with ‘Commando
Commando
In English, the term commando means a specific kind of individual soldier or military unit. In contemporary usage, commando usually means elite light infantry and/or special operations forces units, specializing in amphibious landings, parachuting, rappelling and similar techniques, to conduct and...
’, armoured
Armoured warfare
Armoured warfare or tank warfare is the use of armoured fighting vehicles in modern warfare. It is a major component of modern methods of war....
, mechanized infantry
Mechanized infantry
Mechanized infantry are infantry equipped with armored personnel carriers , or infantry fighting vehicles for transport and combat ....
and artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
units provided with Soviet-made armoured vehicles, field guns, Howitzers and MBRLs.
Heaquartered at the Druze town of Baakline in the Shouf, the PSP militia by 1983 aligned 17,000 troops – 5,000 uniformed regulars, backed by 12,000 male and female reservists staffed by a qualified, Soviet-trained Officer corps. It was subsequently enlarged in the wake of the Mountain War, with the inclusion of 960 Druze soldiers (900 privates, plus 60 Officers and NCOs) of the Lebanese Army’s Fourth Brigade
4th Infantry Brigade (Lebanon)
The 4th Infantry Brigade was a Lebanese Army unit that fought in the Lebanese Civil War, being active from its creation in September 1982 to its destruction in September 1983, in wake of the Mountain War.-Origins:...
after its disintegration in September 1983.
This allowed the PLA to seize seven US-made M48A5
M48 Patton
The M48 Patton is a medium tank that was designed in the United States. It was the third and final tank to be officially named after General George S. Patton, commander of the U.S. Third Army during World War II and one of the earliest American advocates for the use of tanks in battle It was a...
main battle tank
Main battle tank
A main battle tank , also known as a battle tank or universal tank, is a tank that fills the heavy direct fire role of many modern armies. They were originally conceived to replace the light, medium, heavy and super-heavy tanks. Development was spurred onwards in the Cold War with the development...
s (MBTs) and a number of M113
M113 armored personnel carrier
The M113 is a fully tracked armored personnel carrier that has formed the backbone of the United States Army's mechanized infantry units from the time of its first fielding in Vietnam in April 1962. The M113 was the most widely used armored vehicle of the U.S...
APCs for its own armoured corps, further strengthened in 1985 with the arrival of some 70 T-54/55 MBTs, BTR-60
BTR-60
The BTR-60 is the first vehicle in a series of Soviet eight-wheeled armoured personnel carriers. It was developed in the late 1950s as a replacement for the BTR-152 and was seen first time in public in 1961...
and BMP-1
BMP-1
The BMP-1 is a Soviet amphibious tracked infantry fighting vehicle. BMP stands for Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty 1 , meaning "infantry fighting vehicle". The BMP-1 was the world's first mass-produced infantry fighting vehicle...
APCs supplied on loan by Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and the USSR, which they employed in the War of the Camps
War of the camps
The War of the Camps was a subconflict within the 1984–89 phase of the Lebanese Civil War, in which Palestinian refugee camps were besieged by the Shi'ite Amal militia....
waged that same year against Nasserite and PLO militias in west Beirut.
They also fielded a powerful artillery corps equipped with Soviet 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30) and 130 mm towed field gun M1954 (M-46)
130 mm towed field gun M1954 (M-46)
The 130 mm towed field gun M-46 M1954 is a manually loaded, towed 130 mm artillery piece, manufactured in the Soviet Union in the 1950s. It was first observed by the west in 1954...
pieces, along with truck-mounted BM-11 130 mm and towed BM-12
BM-12
The BM-12 was a 107mm Multiple Rocket Launcher developed in the Soviet Union after World War II. The launcher and rockets were adopted by China and produced in large quantities as the Type 63....
(Chinese Type 63
Type 63 multiple rocket launcher
The Type 63 multiple rocket launcher is a towed, 12-tube, 107mm rocket launcher produced by the People's Republic of China in the early 1960s, based on the Soviet BM-12 MRS and using similar rockets...
) 107 mm MBRLs, coupled by Man-portable, shoulder-launched Soviet SAM-7 ‘Grail’ AA missiles which were used to bring down two Lebanese Air Force
Lebanese Air Force
The Lebanese Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Lebanese Armed Forces. The seal of the air force is constituted of a Roundel with two wings and a Lebanese Cedar tree, surrounded by two laurel leaves on a blue background.-History:...
Hawker Hunter
Hawker Hunter
The Hawker Hunter is a subsonic British jet aircraft developed in the 1950s. The single-seat Hunter entered service as a manoeuvrable fighter aircraft, and later operated in fighter-bomber and reconnaissance roles in numerous conflicts. Two-seat variants remained in use for training and secondary...
fighter jets during the 1983-84 ‘Mountain War’.
Administrative organisation and illegal activities
The stronghold of the PSP/PLA laid in the Jabal Barouk area within the Shouf, which they turned into a semi-autonomous canton in the early 1980s, known unofficially as the ‘Druze Mountain’ (Arabic: Jabal al-Duruz). Centred at the Druze town of Baakline – the PSP political and military HQ – the canton comprised the Shouf proper, including the historical towns of MoukhtaraMoukhtara
Moukhtara is a small town in the Chouf District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon. It is the hometown of Walid Jumblatt, the leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party....
(the Jumblatt family’ feudal seat near Beiteddine), Deir al-Qamar, Aley
Aley
Aley is a picturesque town in Mount Lebanon. It is located 17 km uphill from Beirut, just south of the summer resort of Bhamdoun and north of the strategic town of Souk El Gharb.-Demographics:...
, and Bhamdoun
Bhamdoun
Bhamdoun is a town in Lebanon from Beirut on the main road that leads to Damascus, lying at an altitude of above the Lamartine valley. Two separate villages compose the town, Bhamdoun-el-mhatta and Bhamdoun-el-day'aa...
. At west Beirut, the PSP controlled since May 1985 the Druze-populated Karakol quarter, parts of Rue Hamra and a large portion of Rue Watta el-Msaytbi; the latter a small Druze street that housed the Party’s main political offices in the capital city.
A well-organized civil service network, the ‘Civilian Administration of the Mountain’ (CAM), was set up on October 1, 1983 at Beiteddine, headed by an eight-man supreme council that included a central committee and a general congress. The CAM's own 23 bureaus provided everything from education to medical care and also employed 2,000 seasonal workers in agricultural and industrial projects in the Shouf.
Upon the inclusion of the Iqlim al-Kharrub coastal enclave south of Beirut into the canton in 1984-85, a Druze-run ‘Holding’, the COGECO group, was made responsible for running illegal activities at the ports of Jiyeh and Khalde
Khalde
Khalde is a coastal town south of Beirut, Lebanon. It is famous as a touristic destination in the summer especially for its various beach resorts. Excavations, now covered over, show that the site has been occupied since at least the beginning of the first millennium BC. A few kilometers south of...
, including importation of fuel from Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, drug-trafficking and gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
at clandestine permises.
Beiteddine was also the home of the PSP media services, responsible for editing its official newspaper (Arabic: Al-Anba’a) and operated their own radio station, the "Voice of the Mountain" (Arabic: Iza’at Sawt al-Djabal) or "La Voix de la Montaigne" in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. In addition to Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
and Syrian backing, the PSP/PLA received further military assistance from Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
and the USSR, whilst the expatriated Druze community in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
provided financial support.
The post-war years
Since the restoration of constitutional rule in 1989 PSP was the major ally of Syria in Lebanon and its leader Walid Jumblatt was in close relations with the Syrian Army and intelligence generals in Lebanon, namely Ghazi Kenaan and also with the Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim KhaddamAbdul Halim Khaddam
Abdul Halim Khaddam is a Syrian politician who was Vice President of Syria from 1984 to 2005.-Early life and career:Abdul Halim Khaddam was born on 15 September 1932 in Baniyas, Syria. Abdul Halim was one of the few Sunni Muslims to make it to the top of the Alawite-dominated Syrian leadership...
. PSP participated in a number of governments, but, after the Syrian Accountability Act and the UN Resolution 1559 and the change of the balance of powers in the region after the occupation of Iraq, 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 Shia Islamist party. Later, he has drifted into sharp opposition towards the group, and has decided to support their disarmament, claiming that Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
are trying to take over Lebanon through Hezbollah.
Walid Jumblat called for dismantling of the communications system of Hizbollah on May 5, 2008, which created a huge response from Hizbollah and its allies. There were clashed on May 7, 2008, as Hezbollah militia took Beirut. The situation was calmed, after both parties negotiated and reached an agreement at Doha
Doha
Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...
in Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
on May 16, 2008.
In late January 2011, Jumblatt declared that he supported the Hezbollah and Syria stance. Currently PSP, Hezbollah and several other Lebanese political parties share a "national unity government
Lebanese government of June 2011
The formation of a new government led by Najib Mikati follows five months of negotiations after the fall of the Saad Hariri government. Mikati formed a 30 minister cabinet.-Background:...
" in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
.
See also
- Al-Murabitoun
- Amal MovementAmal MovementAmal Movement is short for the Lebanese Resistance Detachments the acronym for which, in Arabic, is "amal", meaning "hope."Amal was founded in 1975 as the militia wing of the Movement of the Disinherited, a Shi'a political movement founded by Musa...
- Lebanese Communist PartyLebanese Communist PartyThe Lebanese Communist Party – LCP or Parti communiste libanais in French, is a communist political party in Lebanon...
- Lebanese National MovementLebanese National MovementThe Lebanese National Movement or Mouvement National Libanais in French, was a front of parties and organizations active during the early years of the Lebanese Civil War...
- Lebanese Civil WarLebanese Civil WarThe Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...
- Mountain War
- War of the CampsWar of the campsThe War of the Camps was a subconflict within the 1984–89 phase of the Lebanese Civil War, in which Palestinian refugee camps were besieged by the Shi'ite Amal militia....