Lebanon/Syria

A good link to a CFR primer on Lebanon/Syria:

Updated: February 18, 2005
What is Syria’s role in Lebanon?
It dominates Lebanon’s foreign policy and has effectively occupied large sections of its smaller neighbor for nearly 30 years. There are currently some 15,000 Syrian troops in Lebanon, and Hezbollah —a militant Shiite group supported by Syria and Iran—has long operated in southern Lebanon. The United States has repeatedly demanded that Syria withdraw its troops and refrain from interfering in Lebanese politics.
Was Syria responsible for the assassination of Rafik Hariri?
There are many suspicions that it was, but no proof. On February 14, a massive car bomb in Beirut killed Hariri and more than a dozen others and wounded more than 100. Syrian officials deny involvement. In September 2004, the Baathist government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pressured Lebanon’s parliament to amend the constitution and extend the presidential term of Emile Lahoud, a Maronite Christian widely seen as a Syrian puppet. Then-Prime Minister Hariri, a billionaire businessman who had led the post-civil war rebuilding of Lebanon, resigned in protest in October.
How long have Syrian troops been in Lebanon?
Since 1976. Full-scale civil war broke out in April 1975 between the Maronite Christian groups of the Lebanese Front and the Lebanese National Movement, which was made up of left-leaning Muslims who wanted a greater share of political power. Fighting was intense, and in June 1976 the Maronite-dominated government asked for support from Syria.