LEBANON DESCENT INTO TURMOIL

February 14, 2005: Lebanon’s billionaire premier Rafik Hariri is killed when a huge bomb explodes as his motorcade travels through Beirut.

November 2006: Hezbollah and its allies quit the cabinet led by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and organise street protests against it. Anti-Syria politician Pierre Gemayel is assassinated.

2007: Hezbollah and its allies maintain a sit-in protest in central Beirut against the Siniora government for the year.

2011: The government led by Sa’ad Hariri is toppled when Hezbollah and its allies quit because of tensions over a UN-backed tribunal into the Rafik Hariri assassination.

2018: Lebanon holds its first parliamentary vote since 2009. Hezbollah and allied groups and individuals win at least 69 of the 128 seats.

January 2020: Hassan Diab, a little-known academic, becomes prime minister with backing from Hezbollah and its allies.

August 4, 2020: A vast quantity of ammonium nitrate explodes at Beirut port, killing more than 200 people, wounding 6,000 and devastating Beirut. The Diab cabinet quits and Hariri is designated to form a new government.

August 2021: The central bank declares it can no longer finance subsidies for fuel imports, prompting power outages and fuel shortages that lead to long queues and sporadic violence at filling stations.

October 2021: Gulf states recall their ambassadors and Saudi Arabia bans all Lebanese imports in protest at comments by a pro-Hezbollah minister criticising Saudi Arabia over the war in Yemen.

April 2022: Lebanon reaches a draft agreement with the IMF for a possible $3 billion in support, dependent on Beirut enacting longdelayed reforms.

The envoys of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia return. Saudi Arabia and France announce a joint $32 million fund for Lebanon.