Southern Lebanon (Arabic:جنوب لبنان,romanized: Janūb Lubnān) is the area ofLebanon comprising theSouth Governorate and theNabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s. TheRashaya andWestern Beqaa districts, the southernmost districts of theBeqaa Governorate.
The main cities of the region areSidon andTyre on the coast, withJezzine andNabatiyeh more inland. Thecazas ofBint Jbeil, Tyre, and Nabatieh in Southern Lebanon are known for their largeShi'a Muslim population with a minority ofChristians. Sidon is predominantlySunni, with the rest of the caza of Sidon having a Shi'a Muslim majority, with a considerable Christian minority, mainlyMelkite Greek Catholics. The cazas of Jezzine andMarjeyoun have a Christian majority and also Shia Muslims. The villages ofAin Ebel,Debel,Qaouzah, andRmaich are entirelyChristian Maronite. The caza ofHasbaya has aDruze majority.
Southern Lebanon became the location of the self-proclaimedFree Lebanon State, announced in 1979 bySaad Haddad.[1] The state failed to gain international recognition, and its authority deteriorated with the death of Saad Haddad in 1984.
Southern Lebanon has also featured prominently in theIsrael-Lebanon conflict.
In October 2010,Iranian PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad visited South Lebanon. This was his first visit to Lebanon since he first assumed office inTehran in 2005. BothIsrael and theUnited States condemned the trip as being "provocative." Ahmadinejad was welcomed by tens of thousands of supporters ofHezbollah, Iran's Shiite Muslim ally in Lebanon which has beenbranded a terrorist organization in part or whole by much of South America, the EU, the Arab League, the United States and Israel. This is despite its participation in Lebanon's fragile government.
