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 Jumblatt, a prominent Druze leader of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP). The general secretary of the LNM was Mohsen Ibrahim, leader of the Communist Action Organization.
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 Progressive Socialist Party (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 sectarianism, political and social reforms, the clear proclamation of the Arab identity of Lebanon, and increased support for the Palestinians. 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 PSP, Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), the two Lebanese Ba'th Party (the pro-Syrian and pro-Iraqi factions), Movement of Independent Nasserists - al-Murabitun, 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 : 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 Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and created the "common forces"القوات المشتركة. They received financial aid and arms from many countries such as Libya, Iraq and Yemen. In the early 1976, the LNM controlled 80% of the Lebanon territory [2]. But as the relation with Damascus deteriorated, pro-Syria Baath branch, Amal Movement, and an important SSNP faction left the movement or halted their participation.
In June 1976, the Syrian Army, fearing that a Palestinian victory would weaknen its own strategic position, received a request from the Lebanese Front to intervene on their behalf[1]. After strong initial resistance, the LNM/PLO forces began losing ground, and once the Arab countries eventually approved the Syrian intervention after the Cairo and Riyadh conferences, they finally accepted a cease-fire. The Syrian forces then taking on the role of a deterrent force, the "Arab Deterrent Forces" (ADF), between the belligerents. In 1977 Walid Jumblatt became the head of the LNM after the murder of his resigning father Kamal in an ambush widely accredited to Syrian intelligence via pro-Syrians Palestinian militants. Despite this, Walid aligned himself 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 relations improved with Syria. In June 1982, the Movement was virtually dissolved after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and replaced by The Lebanese National Resistance Front (Arabic: جبهة المقاومة الوطنية اللبنانية), which commenced resistance operations against the Israeli Army in September of that same year.
