The Kurdish Democratic Party in Lebanon, is the Lebanese branch of a namesake Iraqi-based Kurdish nationalist party, established by Jamil Mihhu in 1960, and based in Lebanon. However, it was not licensed until 24 September 1970. Mihhu supported the Iraqi government against Kurdish rebels fighting for an independent Iraqi Kurdistan and he was captured and imprisoned by the Kurdish resistance in Iraq. Consequently, the leadership of the party passed to Jamil's son, Riyad. Another son, Muhammad, disagreed with his family's position on several issues and therefore in 1977 started his own movement, the Kurdish Democratic Party-Temporary Leadership. The party ceased activities in 1982 after the death of Jamil Mihhu, and lost its legal status in 1991.

The KDP-L in the Lebanese Civil War 1975–1990

When the War of the Camps broke out at Beirut in May 1985, the KDP-L joined an alliance of pro-Arafat Palestinian refugee camp militias, the Al-Mourabitoun, the Communist Action Organization in Lebanon (OCAL), and the Sixth of February Movement ('6th FM') militias against a powerful coalition that gathered their Druze allies of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and the Shia Muslim Amal movement militia forces backed by Syria, the Lebanese Army, and anti-Arafat dissident Palestinian guerrilla factions.