February 2005 - Former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri is killed along with 21 others, in a bomb attack in Beirut, piling pressure on Syria to end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon. The last Syrian soldiers leave Lebanon on April 26.

October 2005 - In a report to the UN Security Council, the preliminary findings of the international investigation into Hariri’s killing implicate high-ranking Syrian and Lebanese officials. Syria denies any role.

July 2006 - Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah — which is backed by Iran and Syria — captures two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, setting off a 34-day war between Hezbollah and Israel. A UN Security Council resolution ends the conflict.

August 2008 - On his first visit to Syria as the President of Lebanon, Michel Sulaiman agrees with President Bashar Al Assad that their countries will establish diplomatic ties for the first time since independence.

June 2009 - An anti-Syrian coalition, led by Sa’ad Hariri, a son of the murdered former premier, defeats Hezbollah and its Christian ally Michel Aoun in parliamentary elections. Hariri forms a new unity government in November.

January 2011 - Ministers from Hezbollah and its political allies resign, bringing down Sa’ad Hariri’s government. Telecoms tycoon Najeeb Mikati forms a new government in June dominated by Hezbollah’s political allies.

July 2012 - The Special Tribunal for Lebanon, established to try suspects in Rafik Hariri’s killing names the four men wanted for the murder as Mustafa Ameen Badr Al Deen, a senior Hezbollah figure, as well as Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hussain Hassan Oneissi and Assad Hassan Sabra. Hezbollah denies any role in the killing and says it will refuse to allow the suspects to be arrested.

April 2012 - Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Lebanon warns Saudi citizens to stay away from Lebanon’s border areas, after two Saudi citizens were kidnapped and tortured for eight days, before being freed in a joint Saudi-Lebanese operation.

August 2012 - Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf states advise their citizens to leave Lebanon after a mass kidnapping in retaliation for events in Syria raises fears that violence may be spilling across the region.

September 2012 - On a visit to Lebanon, Pope Benedict appeals for a halt to the flow of arms into Syria.

October 2012 - Senior Lebanese intelligence official Wissam Al Hassan, who led the investigation that implicated Syria and Hezbollah in the 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri, is killed with seven others in a car bomb attack in Beirut.