Key events in Lebanon's political crisis

2004

Sept 3: With the end of President Emile Lahoud’s six-year term approaching, the strongly pro-Syrian cabinet votes to amend the constitution to extend his mandate by three years.
Oct 1: Economy Minister Marwan Hamadeh, a strong opponent of extending Lahoud’s term, survives an assassination attempt.
The UN Security Council adopts a US- and French- backed resolution condemning the extension of Lahoud’s mandate.
Oct 20: Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and his government resign, and are replaced by a more strongly pro-Syrian team.

2005

Feb 14: Hariri is killed in a massive explosion in Beirut. Western powers and the anti-Syrian opposition blame neighbouring Syria, which has had troops in Lebanon since the civil war of the 1970s. Damascus denies the claims.
April 26: Syria pulls its last troops out of Lebanon in the face of a massive international outcry, ending three decades of dominating its smaller neighbour.

May-June: Parliamentary elections give an absolute majority to the anti-Syrian opposition, grouped around Hariri’s son, Saad. The new prime minister, Fuad Siniora, forms a government which includes ministers from the Syrian-backed Shiite group Hezbollah.
Oct 20: A first report by a UN probe into Hariri’s assassination implicates senior figures in Syria and Lebanon.
Dec 12: Anti-Syrian journalist and MP Gibran Tueni is murdered.

2006

July-Aug: War breaks out between Hezbollah, which controls most of southern Lebanon, and Israel. Over 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, are killed and large parts of the country are devastated by the bombing. Some 160 Israelis, mostly troops, are also killed. Hezbollah emerges politically strengthened.
Nov 11: Hezbollah spearheads a political campaign for the replacement of the Siniora government, which it accuses of corruption. Six Hezbollah and allied ministers resign from the cabinet.
Nov 21: Anti-Syrian Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel is assassinated.

2007

Jan 25: Street clashes between pro- and anti-government forces leave four dead.
May 20: Fighting breaks out between the army and a hardline Sunni Muslim group in one of Lebanon’s poverty-stricken Palestinian refugee camps. The fighting continues until early September, when the army finally takes the camp, leaving about 400 people dead in the battle.
June 10: In line with a decision by the UN Security Council, bitterly denounced by the Lebanese opposition, the Beirut government votes to set up a special tribunal to determine who assassinated Rafiq Hariri.
June 13: Anti-Syrian MP Walid Eido is assassinated.
Aug 31: With the end of Lahoud’s third term approaching, parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri proposes a consensus deal for parliament’s selection of a new president.
The new head of state, who under a long-standing convention is supposed to be a Maronite Christian, must be elected between September 25 and November 24.
Sept 14: The United States, which has strongly backed anti-Syrian forces in Lebanon, warns against any attempt by the president to appoint a successor without a vote.
Sept 19: Anti-Syrian MP Antoine Ghanem is killed long with four other people by a car bomb in a Beirut suburb.
Sept 24: Saudi Arabia calls on rival Lebanese MPs to work to agree on a consensus candidate as next president.
Damascus accuses Lebanon’s anti-Syrian parliamentary majority of trying to sabotage the presidential election in a grab for power.
Sept 25: MPs gather amid strict security for a special parliamentary session to elect a new president, but the vote is postponed to October 23.
Sept 27: The UN Security Council calls for Lebanon to hold free and fair elections without foreign interference.
Oct 20: French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, together with Italian and Spanish counterparts Massimo D’Alema and Miguel Angel Moratinos, meet Lebanon’s feuding political leaders in a bid to break the deadlock.
Oct 22: Berri postpones the special session to elect a president until November 12.
Nov 10: Berri postpones election for a third time, to November 21.
Nov 15: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visits Lebanon
Nov 16: Lebanon’s influential Maronite patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir submits a list of potential presidential candidates.