Lebanon’s Hariri finds himself caught in regional feuds
Saad Hariri has seen a lot in his 47 years.
His father, Lebanon’s charismatic leader and influential businessman Rafik Hariri, was assassinated in a 2005 bombing that rocked the country and thrust the young man into a political career before he was ready.
He led an uprising that ended decades of Syrian military presence in Lebanon, and was later wanted by the government in Damascus for arming rebels seeking to overthrow President Bashar Assad.
He was ousted as prime minister by the militant group Hezbollah in 2011 while meeting with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office; years later, he formed another unity government with the same group, which was implicated in his father’s death.
But the most bizarre twist came two weeks ago, when he was summoned to Riyadh by his patrons, the Saudi royal family. The next day, on Nov. 4, he resigned in a broadcast on Saudi TV. The man who has played a balancing act for years in Lebanon’s delicate, sectarian-based political system was cast onto an unknown path, as was his country.
Hariri finds himself caught between the region’s two feuding powers, the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran, raising questions about the fate of the dynasty that has been the face of politics for decades in Lebanon.
“In many ways, Saad is a copy of Rafik Hariri, with the difference in circumstances,’’ said Paula Yacoubian, the Future TV anchor who interviewed Hariri on Sunday in his residence in Saudi Arabia, where many Lebanese believe he is being held against his will.
His father was a self-made billionaire who amassed his construction fortune in Saudi Arabia and then helped rebuild a civil war-shattered Lebanon as prime minister. He was killed when his motorcade was struck by truck bomb in Beirut on Feb. 14, 2005, and four Hezbollah members are being tried in absentia by a U.N.-backed court for the killing.
The bombing immediately thrust Saad Hariri into the spotlight — and the political novice had to learn fast.
With an international business degree from Georgetown University, he moved into his new role, but the shadow of his father was always there. For years during meetings, he kept a large portrait of his father sitting on an empty chair next to his. A pin of his father still adorns the lapel of his suits.
Like his father, he lives in fear of being assassinated, travelling around town in elaborate security convoys.
In his resignation speech from Riyadh, Hariri cited fears for his life as one reason for stepping down, in addition to blaming what he called meddling in the region by Iran and Hezbollah.
The resignation caught Lebanon by surprise, and many believed that Hariri, a dual Lebanese-Saudi national, was coerced by the Saudis. Lebanese President Michel Aoun refused to accept it until he returned home to Beirut.