Agreement of May 17th

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The May 17 agreement was a failed attempt during the Lebanese civil war to establish peace between Lebanon and Israel with US backing in 1983 . Some viewed this as an inadmissible agreement given that the country was under Israeli and Syrian occupation, while others recognized an attempt to restore peace and security in Lebanon and the region.

Political background

The agreement was signed by the representatives of the United States, Israel and Lebanon on May 17, 1983 . Lebanon was occupied by Israel and Syria at the time, and a significant proportion of PLO fighters were in the country. Lebanese President Amin Gemayel had been elected shortly after his brother Bachir Gemayel was murdered by Syrian intermediaries. Many Lebanese backed Amin Gemayel, believing his close ties with the United States would help build peace and restore Lebanese sovereignty , which they gained not only through the Israeli occupation but also through the Syrian presence in Lebanon , mainly in the North of the country and in the Bekaa Plain .

Terms of the Agreement

The agreement ended the state of war between Israel and Lebanon, which had lasted since the Palestinian War of 1948, and ensured a phased withdrawal of the Israeli armed forces, on condition that a common "security zone" was established in southern Lebanon along the common border. It contained various security cooperation clauses between Lebanon and Israel designed to prevent the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and other groups from infiltrating the border area.

Reasons for failure

The agreement met with strong opposition from Lebanese Muslims and in the Arab world , who interpreted it as a task. The peace agreement with Israel by a single Arab state was (and is) a taboo and the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty of Camp David had led to a temporary exclusion from the Arab League . Syria's rejection of the agreement was vocal and by refusing to remove its troops from Lebanese soil, Damascus torpedoed implementation, as the Israeli withdrawal required Syria to do the same.

Israel insisted on implementing the peace agreement, threatening that it would meet the conditions with or without Lebanese approval, but public opinion in Lebanon toppled and the fragile peace process began to crumble.

The Lebanese National Assembly ratified the agreement, but President Gemayel got cold feet. In 1984 he decided not to sign the agreement and it failed.

From the Israeli withdrawal to the 2006 Lebanon War

Israel eventually withdrew unilaterally from positions in southern Lebanon in 2000 after waging a long guerrilla war against the Shiite Hezbollah . Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak had spoken out in favor of withdrawal as part of his election campaign, but it is widely believed that he did so in the belief that he could make peace with Syria, removing the main obstacle to peace between Israel and Lebanon.

When the peace talks between Israel and Syria failed over the issue of the Golan Heights , Barak held on to the withdrawal even without an agreement and caused some, especially in the Arab world, to see this as a victory for Hezbollah. The result was that Lebanon and Israel formally remained at war and Lebanon officially refused to recognize Israel as a state.

A ceasefire is in place between Israel and Lebanon, covering most of the common border and being respected, save for ongoing Lebanese airspace violations and the occasional Israeli shelling. However, Lebanon considers the area of ​​the Shebaa farms , which are part of the Golan Heights, to be under continued Israeli military occupation . The Hezbollah refers to this problem as the reason for its continuing armed resistance and results in occasional attacks in this territory. Israel responds with mortar fire and counter-attacks on points along the border. These exchanges of fire occasionally cause the fighting to flare up.

The United Nations then recognized that Israel had withdrawn completely from Lebanon in accordance with Resolution 425 of the UN Security Council and thus contradicted the Lebanese claims to the Shebaa farms. The United Nations and Israel consider the area to be part of the Golan Heights, which belong to Syria and are currently under Israeli occupation. The Syrian position on this matter is somewhat complicated: the government of Bashar al-Assad backs the Lebanese demand for the Shebaa farms to be surrendered, but refuses to issue cards that substantiate the Lebanese claim to the area.

After the Cedar Revolution , parts of the Lebanese anti-Syrian bloc, including the Druze leader Walid Jumblat, began to question the Lebanese claims to the Shebaa farms. Jumblat argued that the farms were indeed Syrian and were only used by Syria and Hezbollah as a reason to justify Hezbollah's status as an armed militia.

As a result of Hezbollah attacks with Katyusha missiles on northern Israel and the capture of two Israeli soldiers in the border area between Zar'it and Aita al-She'b , a renewed armed conflict broke out on July 12, 2006 , in the course of which the Israeli army Targets across Lebanon attacked and killed over 1000 people, many of them civilians . 159 people were killed on the Israeli side. On August 16, a ceasefire came into force as a result of UN Security Council resolution 1701 . Subsequently, the armed forces of Lebanon took up positions in southern Lebanon for the first time in over thirty years and the UNIFIL troops were increased to 15,000 soldiers.

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