Ibrahim Kulaylat

Who is Ibrahim Kulaylat?

Ibrahim Kulaylat is a Lebanese politician.

Head of the Indepensent Nasserist Movement, known under the name of al-Mourabitoun, established in 1958, he organized a multi-confessional militia, consisted specially of Sunni, Shiite Muslims and progressive Christians. His militia numbered more than 3000 fighters, and took an active part in the Lebanese War of 1982, by becoming allied to the Palestine Liberation Organization, managed by Yasser Arafat, also by becoming allied to the other left-wing parties to form the Lebanese National Movement, against the parties of the Lebanese right with Christian majority.

In 1982 al-Mourabitoun militia defended with doggedness Beirut, besieged by the Israeli army, and this during 3 months, and continued its resistance to the occupation, up to the withdrawal of Israeli troops of the Lebanese capital.

In 1985, taking advantage of his journey in France, and under the pressure of the Syrian regime, his former allies of the progressive socialist Party and the group Amal turned against him, as he had allied himself to the Lebanese Army.

Since, he chose to exile himself and did not take a stand any more on the Lebanese political scene. In 2001 his party was reorganized and retied its alliances with the other progressive Lebanese parties, but since the intensification of the political crisis in the Lebanon, further to the murder of Lebanese ex-Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, numerous rumors announce his return in the country.