Lebanon

Lebanon is a unitary parliamentary republic on the eastern Mediterranean, bordered by Syria and Israel, with Beirut as its capital and largest city; the country's confessional political system reserves the presidency for a Maronite Christian, the prime ministry for a Sunni Muslim, the speakership of parliament for a Shia Muslim, and the deputy speakership for a Greek Orthodox Christian. Human habitation of the area dates to around 5000 BC, and the territory was part of Phoenicia from roughly 3200 to 539 BC before passing through Roman, Byzantine and, from the seventh century, Islamic caliphal rule, then Ottoman control beginning in 1516; a French mandate following the First World War established the territory of Greater Lebanon in 1920. Lebanon declared independence on 22 November 1943, became a founding United Nations member when the UN Charter took effect on 24 October 1945, and saw French troops complete their withdrawal in December 1946. With a 2024 population exceeding five million, Lebanon is classified as a developing country whose economy the World Bank has described as suffering one of the world's worst crises since the nineteenth century.