Lebanese Front

Lebanese Front
Participant in Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990)
Active	Until 1990
Groups	Kataeb Party Lebanese Forces National Liberal Party Other minor Christian organizations
Leaders	Pierre Gemayel Camille Chamoun Suleiman Franjieh
Headquarters	Beirut
Strength	5000-7000
Allies	Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) South Lebanon Army Syrian Armed Forces1977-1981
Opponents	Lebanese National Movement (LNF) Lebanese National Resistance Front (LNRF) Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Syrian Social National Party (SSNP) Syrian Armed Forces1981-1990

The Lebanese Front (Arabic: الجبهة اللبنانية‎| Jabhat al-Lubnaniyya) or Front libanais in French, also known as the "Kufur Front", was a coalition of mainly Christian parties formed in 1976, during the Lebanese Civil War. It was intended to act as a counter force to the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) of Kamal Jumblatt and others.

The Lebanese Front was presided by the charismatic former president of Lebanon, Camille Chamoun, and its main participants were Pierre Gemayel, the founder and leader of the then largest political party in Lebanon, the Kataeb Party, president Suleiman Franjieh, who had just finished his presidential years in office. It also included first class intellectuals, such as distinguished professor of philosophy Charles Malik who had received 63 honorary doctoral degrees before presiding the United Nations General Assembly, and Fouad Frem al-Boustani, the president of the Lebanese University. The front also included religious figures such as Father Charbel Qassis, who was later replaced by Father Bulus Naaman the “head of the permanent congress of the Lebanese monastic orders”. For a brief while the poet Said Aql was a member.

As soon as the war erupted in Lebanon, and before the Lebanese Front was formed, many of the future leaders of the Lebanese Front organized their political parties into militias, most notably Camille Chamoun’s National Liberal Party, Pierre Gemayel’s Kataeb Party, and Suleiman Franjieh’s Marada Brigade. The total number of men summed to around 18,000, which is a relatively large number given that the total population in Lebanon was close to three million.

In 1978, Suleiman Franjieh's son, Tony, and his family were assassinated by armed Kataeb militiamen acting on orders from Bashir Gemayel, the son of Pierre Gemayel. It was this turning point that made president Suleiman Franjieh resign from the Front.

In 1982, the Lebanese Front promoted Bashir Gemayel for presidency. Indeed he was elected as president as soon as the Israeli forces invaded Lebanon, only to be assassinated three weeks later.

During the second half of the 1980s, most of the prominent leaders of the Lebanese Front died (Pierre Gemayel in 1984, both Chamoun and Charles Malik in 1987) and were replaced by leaders of much less influence: George Saadeh and Karim Pakradouni. The Lebanese Front then lived for a short period only, and its new leaders shifted towards Syria. Dany Chamoun, son of deceased Camille Chamoun, formed a new Lebanese Front that was not pro-Syrian, but a week after the end of the Lebanese Civil war in October 1990, Dany was assassinated and the Lebanese Front came to an end.

See also

• Lebanese Civil War
• Lebanese Forces

References

• Edgar O'Ballance, Civil War in Lebanon, 1975-92, Palgrave Macmillan, London 1998. ISBN 978-0333729757
• Itamar Rabinovich, The war for Lebanon, 1970-1985, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London 1989 (revised edition). ISBN 0-8014-9313-7
• Rex Brynen, Sanctuary and Survival: the PLO in Lebanon, Boulder: Westview Press, 1990.