The Socialist Arab Lebanon Vanguard Party (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

: حزب طليعة لبنان العربي الاشتراكي ''Hizb Al-Taliyeh Lubnan Al-'Arabi Al-Ishtiraki'') is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

. The party was led by

Abd al-Majid al-Rafei Abd al-Majid al-Rafei (in Arabic عبد المجيد الرافعي‎; 11 April 1927 – 12 July 2017), born in Tripoli, Lebanon, was a Lebanese politician and member of the Lebanese Parliament. He was at one time the head of the Iraqi f ...

until his death in July 2017. It is the Lebanese regional branch of the Iraqi-led Ba'ath Party. The party held its second congress in October 2011. Founders of the party included Dr. Abd al-Majid al-Rafe'ii, Jihad George Karam, Rafiq Naseeb al-Faqih, Karam Mohamed al-Sahili, Hani Mohammad Sho'aib, Ammar Mohammad Shibli, Hassan Khalil Gharib and Asaf el-Harakeh. Although formally affiliated to the Sunni-dominated regime in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

and led by a Sunni between 1966–1990, the majority of the party's members at the time were Lebanese Shiites. The existence of the Lebanese branch of the Iraqi-led Ba'ath Party has much longer roots than its Syrian-led counterpart. Following the 1966 split in the Ba'ath Party between Iraqi and Syrian-dominated factions, the pro-Iraqi party was led by Abd al-Majid Rafei. At first, the pro-Iraqi party and the pro-Syrian party worked side-by-side in the

Lebanese National Movement The Lebanese National Movement (LNM) ( ar, الحركة الوطنية اللبنانية, ''Al-Harakat al-Wataniyya al-Lubnaniyya'') or Mouvement National Libanais (MNL) in French, was a front of leftist, pan-Arabist and Syrian nationalist p ...

(also known as the National Front), but with tension increasing between them, the two parties were on a war footing. The party was active in 1960s demonstrations, and al-Rafei was detained by Lebanese authorities for his political activities. However, he was a candidate from Tripoli in the 1968 general election. The party expanded during the first half of the 1970s, and in the 1972 general election al-Rafi was elected to parliament from Tripoli. Ali al-Khalil, a former member, was elected from Tyre. The party was active in

southern Lebanon Southern Lebanon () is the area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s. The Rashaya and Western Beqaa Districts, the southernmost distri ...

, and was built with generous aid from Iraq.

Lebanese Civil War

During the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

, the Lebanese parliament formed the National Dialogue Committee in 1975.

Assem Qanso Muhammad Assem Qanso ( ar, عاصم قانصوه, born 1937 in Baalbek) is a Lebanese politician. He is a former leader of the Lebanese Ba'ath Party. Political career Qanso joined the Lebanese Ba'ath in 1953. During the Lebanese war, the Leba ...

of the pro-Syrian party became a member, but no figures from the pro-Iraqi Ba'ath Party were given a seat on the committee. The party was a member of the

, a political alliance led by

Kamal Jumblatt Kamal Fouad Jumblatt ( ar, كمال فؤاد جنبلاط; 6 December 1917 – 16 March 1977) was a Lebanese politician who founded the Progressive Socialist Party. He led the National Movement during the civil war against the Lebanese Front. ...

of the

Progressive Socialist Party The Progressive Socialist Party ( ar, الحزب التقدمي الاشتراكي, translit=al-Hizb al-Taqadummi al-Ishtiraki) is a Lebanese political party. Its confessional base is in the Druze sect and its regional base is in Mount Lebanon ...

, and had an organized a militia of around 1,500 armed men that received its funding and weapons by Iraq. Following the execution of

Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr ( ar, آية الله العظمى السيد محمد باقر الصدر; 1 March 1935 – 9 April 1980), also known as al-Shahīd al-Khāmis (the fifth martyr), was an Iraqi philosopher, and the ideological founde ...

by Saddam Hussein in April 1980, the party came into conflict with Amal Movement which culminated in tit-for-tat assassinations and clashes in Shia majority suburbs of

Dahieh Dahieh ( ar, الضاحية الجنوبية, lit=the southern suburb, french: Banlieue Sud de Beyrouth, Dâhiye de Beyrouth) is a predominantly Shia Muslim suburb, located south of Beirut, in the Baabda District of Lebanon. It is composed of sev ...

until late 1981. In November 1981, Tahsein al-Atrash, leader of the Ba'ath branch at the time, was shot dead.

References

{{Lebanese political parties 1966 establishments in Lebanon Arab nationalism in Lebanon Arab nationalist militant groups Ba'athist parties

Factions in the Lebanese Civil War Lebanese National Movement Nationalist parties in Lebanon Political parties established in 1966 Socialist parties in Lebanon

Lebanese Civil War

See also

References