Lebanon, a divided country

In recent months, Lebanon has suffered strong social protests, continuous changes of government, the blow of the coronavirus pandemic and an impressive explosion of several tons of ammonium nitrate in the port of Beirut. It also suffers from one of the world's highest public debts, which exceed 160 per cent of GDP and to which it allocates nearly half its budget. It is the country with the highest number of refugees per inhabitant in the world, with 156 refugees for every 1,000 inhabitants. The political system is showing signs of exhaustion, beset by systemic corruption, religious struggles and social protests, which are calling for change in the country. To understand how Lebanon, the Switzerland of the Middle East, has come to this situation, it is necessary to go back a few years.

Lebanon is a country determined by the variety of religious denominations found in its territory and which have led over the centuries to the creation of communities. This multiculturalism includes Muslims and Christians, but within these large groups there are important differences between Maronites and Catholic Christians or between Shiites and Sunnis, as well as between the other groups that make up the complex reality of communities in Lebanon, such as the Druze. This small piece of land between the Mediterranean and Syria was part of this country, but the influence of France, the former colony state, managed to sever this territory from the rest of the country with Paris' intention of maintaining a significant influence on the Christian community, very large in the region.  

This separation between community groups reached its worst moment in the 1970s and 1980s, when fifteen years of civil war brought down one of the most prosperous countries in the Middle East. The 1989 Taif Agreement brought an end to a civil war between communities, conditioned by the constant presence of foreign powers in the country. This agreement made it possible to define the political reality of the post-war period, based on a division of state powers that placed the different communities at the centre of the political chessboard, establishing a 50/50 split of seats in parliament between Christians and Muslims. The main political posts have been distributed among the communities with the aim of sharing power among the different groups in the country, but the consequence has been the creation of clientelistic networks and the dismantling of a divided state, which cannot find a common identity with which to build an inclusive national project.

Community divisions in Lebanon have long been instrumentalised by the various regional and international powers, which seek to support a particular group with the aim of increasing their influence on the country. In the course of the civil war, the different international actors generously financed the various groups in dispute, with the aim of securing a greater share of power. More recently, Macron's visit following the explosion in the Beirut port was a reminder of the times when the land of cedars was still dependent on Paris, which has had and continues to have great power of influence. The United States began a growing career of influence in Lebanon, allocating billions of euros to the country's defence in order to limit Hezbollah's influence. Washington is currently at an important crossroads, as it no longer wishes to allocate such sums to the country's defence if Hezbollah remains in government. But cutting subsidies would give this group wings, reinforcing its influence in the state and the region.

Hezbollah, the Party of God, is represented in the Lebanese government since 2005, when it managed to take over two ministerial portfolios. The importance of the group has only grown, as it is the only militia entitled to have weapons in the country, competing with the country's own army in operational capabilities and being the backbone of defence against Israel, which invaded Lebanon in 2006. The importance of this actor is absolute in the country, as it has managed to provide its followers with many of the basic services that the government itself does not provide, enabling it to maintain high levels of influence and sympathy among the population. Having become a state within the state, it has ventured abroad with soldiers sent to the war in Syria, as Bachar al-Asad is a long-standing ally of Hezbollah.  

Furthermore, since it was founded in the 80s it has enjoyed great support from Iran, a country with which it shares the Shiite faith and which sees the organisation as an important means of defending its influence in the country and consolidating a Shiite arch extending also to Iraq and Syria. Saudi Arabia, which struggles with Iran for regional hegemony, also has important links with the country, particularly thanks to the fluid relationship between former prime minister Rafic Hariri and the ruling house in Riyadh. The relationship cooled from 2015 onwards, particularly following the incident in 2017 in which, in strange circumstances, Prime Minister Saad Hariri (son of the assassinated Rafic Hariri) resigned from office during a trip to Saudi Arabia. The country has promised loans to Lebanon to help with reconstruction following the explosion in the port of Beirut, but on condition that Hezbollah should have less influence on the government.

The economic and financial crisis in which the country has been submerged for years has dragged a large part of its population into poverty, with 3.3 million people in vulnerable situations, almost half of the country. In early 2020 the complicated situation led to the convening of massive demonstrations in the country, protesting against corruption, the government and the cuts demanded of the executive branch because of its huge deficit. The protesters, most of whom were young, asked for the existing political system to be abandoned in order to form a truly articulate country, since the community parties are unable to move the country forward.  

Former prime minister Saad Hariri is again being asked to form a government after resigning last year following the protests, amid the manifest inability of the traditional political parties to reach a consensus. Embroiled in a tremendous economic and financial crisis that has plunged the country's economy and currency into a pandemic that has caused the state's GDP to fall by 12 percent and its population to become impoverished, the explosion in the port of Beirut has brought Lebanon into the international spotlight for a few months. But the country's problems are longstanding and difficult to solve.

Within this panorama, children have been the most affected by the explosion in the Beirut port. Out of 190 dead, 6,500 injured and 300,000 affected by the explosion, there are four children dead, 1,000 injured and 100,000 affected, to give an idea of the impact on children, the most vulnerable. UNICEF, the UN specialised agency for children, has focused on children in Lebanon, which is also home to 630,000 child refugees from the Syrian war and 400,000 children of Palestinian origin. To get an idea of the situation of the most vulnerable minors, it is highly recommendable to see the film Capernaum, directed by Lebanese Nadine Labaki, which takes us into the country's child poverty at the hands of Zain al-Rafeea, a poor child from the suburbs of Beirut. Sometimes, the best way to empathise with the problems of a country as battered as Lebanon is through fiction.