Similar events have been held in Beirut in previous years.  In 2004, an International strategy meeting titled: "Where Next for the Global Anti-War and Anti-Globalization Movements" involved several international far Left groups and Hezbollah. Ali Fayyad explained that that meeting was being held in Lebanon because, "Lebanon…has defeated the Reagan project for the Middle East" and successfully resisted Israeli occupation. The meeting's final declaration expressed support for "the right of the people of Iraq and Palestine to resist the occupations" and for the creation of "an International Movement against Israeli Apartheid" that will support campaigns to boycott Israel and coordinate future meetings. 

Following the summer 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, Hezbollah, along with the Communist Party of Lebanon, held another conference in Beirut with representatives of the international far Left. The conference's final statement indicated that participants agreed "to establish a worldwide network against the American-Zionist project which does not only target the area but also humanity." This, they agreed, would be achieved by "developing more and greater relations between leftist, democratic and nationalist currents and Islamic and resistance movements."