Lebanese National Movement

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The Lebanese National Movement (LNM) (Arabic: الحركة الوطنية اللبنانية) , was a front of parties and organizations active during the early years of the civil war in Lebanon. It was led by Kamal Jumblat, a prominent Druze leader of the Jumblatt family of Lebanon.

The LNM represented one of the two main forces during the first round of fighting in the Lebanese civil war, the other being the militias of mainly Christian Lebanese Front which comprises the Phalange, the National Liberal Party and others; as well as parts of the Maronite-dominated central government.

The LNM had been founded out of the Front for Progressive Parties and National Forces in 1969, as a self-proclaimed "democratic, progressive and non-sectarian" front. Its membership was overwhelmingly left-wing and professed to be secular, although the fairly obvious sectarian appeal of Jumblatt's Druze PSP and some of the Sunni Arab nationalist organizations in some cases made this claim debatable. To say that the LNM was a Muslim organization would however be a gross oversimplification. Its main claims are: the abrogation of sectarism, political and social reforms, the clear proclamation of the arabity of Lebanon, more support to the Palestinian struggle and the demission of President Suleiman Frangieh.[1].Soon after the outbreak of the war, it announces the creation of an executive structure, "the central political council".

Among the participants in the LNM were the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP), the Communist Action Organization (CAO), the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), the two Lebanese Ba'th Party (the pro-Syrian and pro-Iraqi factions) as well as the al-Murabitun militia of the Independent Nasserist Organization, the mainly shiite Amal Movement and several other minor Nasserite groups. Several Palestinian organizations joined the LNM, notably many from the Rejectionist Front. Both the PFLP and the PDFLP/DFLP were active participants.

At the beginning of the war in 1975 the different LNM militias regrouped roughly 25,000 militiamen (Besides their Palestinians factions allies) against 18,000 right-wing militiamen. They are distributed as following [2] : PSP militia 5000 men, LCP militia (the popular Guards) 5000 men, the SSNP militia 4000 men, pro-Iraqi Baath militia 3000 men, pro-Syria Baath militia 3000 men, al-Murabitun militia 3000 men. The others militias shared the sold. As fighting escalated, the LNM allied itself with the umbrella Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and created the "common forces"القوات المشتركة. They received financial aid and arms from many countries such Libya, Iraq and Yemen. In the early 1976, the LNM controlled 80% of the Lebanon territory [3]. But as the relation with Damascus spoils, pro-Syria Baath branch, Amal Movement, and an important SSNP faction leave the movement or chill their participation . In June 1976, the Syrian Army, fearing that a Palestinian victory weaknesses its own strategic position, intervenes alongside the Lebanese Front. After a strong initial resistance, the LNM/PLO forces begin losing ground, and as the Arab countries approve finally the Syrian intervention after the Cairo and Riyadh conferences, they accept finally a cease-fire, the Syrian forces acting apart a deterrent force, the "Arab Deterrent Forces" (ADF), between the belligerents. In 1977 Walid Jumblatt become the head of the LNM after the murder of his resigning father Kamal in a guet-apens widely accredited to Syrian intelligence across pro-Syrians SSNP militants. Despite this fact, Walid aligns his self with the Syrian positions, and maintains good working relationship with President Hafez Al-Assad who had shared with his father a notorious mutual distrust. In 1978 The Israeli (Operation Litani) in southern Lebanon was partly directed against LNM militias, then fighting alongside the PLO after the relation improve with Syria. In June 1982, the Movement was virtually dissolved after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and remplaced by The Lebanese National Resistance Front (Arabic: جبهة المقاومة الوطنية اللبنانية), which began in September of the same year guerilla operations against the Israeli Army.