President Gemayel's decree, signed 15 minutes before his term expired, on 22 September 1988, also included three Muslim ministers (Sunni, Shiite, Druze), but all three rejected the posts and immediately resigned.

[9] In West Beirut, Hrawi's government consisted of a cabinet equally divided between Christians and Muslims, with Salim Al-Huss as Prime Minister.

At the time it was estimated that Aoun's portion of the army amounted to 16,000 men, while the LF had 10,000; both sides were equipped with tanks and heavy artillery.

[11] Nine days later, 24 February, with seventy people killed and the intervention of the Maronite Patriarchate, the LF agreed to hand over to Aoun control of Beirut's port's fifth basin with its estimated $300,000 per month tax revenue.

Suleiman Frangieh, in the north, also returned control of Ras Salaata port in Batroun District[12] The following month Aoun launched a blockade against the unregulated seaports south of Beirut at Jieh and Khalde.

[20] On 16 May 1989 Grand Mufti Hassan Khaled, spiritual leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslims, was assassinated while being driven through Beirut by a car bomb which killed at least 20 other people.

[22] The Arab League peace initiative, led by Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, managed to get Iraq to stop selling weapons to Aoun and the following month a shipment of 50 Frog missiles was intercepted in Aqaba.

Two weeks later, 29 August, the Sun Shield, a Danish registered fuel tanker was hit by shellfire, caught fire and sank in Jouneh bay.

[26][15][27] On 6 September 1989, without prior announcement American Ambassador John Thomas McCarthy and 29 staff were airlifted out of the US embassy in Aoun's enclave.

[31][32] In an attempt to derail the Taif timetable, on 3 November, Aoun announced that he was dissolving parliament and tens of thousands of his supporters took to the streets.

Thousands gathered around the Presidential palace in Baabda and a large group invaded the Maronite headquarters in Bkerké where they abused the Patriarch, Nasrallah Sfeir.

On 5 November an assembly of members of Parliament, including thirty arriving from exile in Paris, met in Qoleiat air base North Lebanon, and elected Rene Muawad as President.

[33][8] On 31 January 1990,[34] General Aoun launched an offensive against the Lebanese Forces (LF), led by Samir Geagea, in East Beirut.

The two week offensive brought destruction and casualties, 500 killed and 2,000 wounded, that East Beirut had not seen during the Civil War or the Israeli invasion.

Two days later, 17/18 February, a truce was agreed to allow 200 of Aoun's elite commands to leave their base at Adma airfield where they had been trapped since the start of the fighting.

[45] On 1 April 1990, Hrawi's government mandated Fleet Admiral Elie Hayek (who had been appointed commander of the Mount Lebanon region by the cabinet on 11 March)[citation needed] to take over LF barracks in the governorate.

As the Elimination War was ravaging East Beirut and its suburbs (up to the Metn), the handoff actually began in Keserwan district – at the level of Nahr el-Kalb – up to Barbara.

[48] In addition, Geagea placed Hayek in an LF barrack in Jounieh as a symbol of his willingness to integrate with the government, defying Aoun's refusal of any Hrawi-LF alliance.

[49] These developments, combined with the Syrian army's support, dramatically shifted the odds in favour of the Taef agreement and its government.

On the evening of 1 October 1990 several hundred people gathered for a candlelit vigil on the edge of the enclave around the Presidential Palace at Ba’abda.

General Aoun had been besieged in the Palace for two years and the demonstration was a response to a new blockade imposed by the Hrawi government on the Aounist areas.

[50] Eleven days later, 12 October, a lone gunman fired two shots at General Aoun whilst he was addressing a crowd outside the palace.