Beirut

Abstract

Abstract In the late 1960s the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was expelled from its base of operations in Jordan owing to a disagreement with the ruling party. The PLO’s leader, Yasir Arafat, moved his headquarters to Beirut, Lebanon, from which terrorist attacks were launched. As the Lebanese government and army were too weak to stop the PLO’s activities, Egyptian leader Gama! Abdel Nasser hosted a meeting in November 1969, which resulted in the Cairo Agreement. This pact basically gave the PLO free rein to operate from Lebanon while giving the Lebanese little guarantee of protection from Israeli reprisals to terrorism. In 1975-1976, a Christian-Muslim civil war in Lebanon resulted in the imposition of30,000 peacekeeping troops from Syria, the Sudan, Saudi Arabia, North and South Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates. Two-thirds of the force was Syrian. Over time, the Syrian military and PLO came to exercise primary control in Lebanon. In the southern part of the country, PLO artillery and rocket batteries shelled northern Israeli settlements and raided across the border.