The Sunni Muslim population had grown with the arrival of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, while Shiite Muslims felt increasingly marginalized by the ruling Christian minority. Tensions between these groups evolved into civil war as several factors upset the delicate balance. Under a 1943 political agreement, political power is divided among Lebanon’s predominant religious groups-a Sunni Muslim serves as prime minister, a Maronite Christian as president, and a Shiite Muslim as the speaker of parliament. Various Lebanese sectarian communities held different positions on the nature of the Palestinian challenge. Hezbollah emerged during Lebanon’s fifteen-year civil war, which broke out in 1975 when long-simmering discontent over the large, armed Palestinian presence in the country reached a boiling point.
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