Supporters of Future Movement raise photos of the late Rafik Hariri and Saad Hariri in Saida, South Lebanon. (Courtesy of Muntasser Abdallah/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Supporters of Lebanon's Future Movement gathered at the mausoleum of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in downtown Beirut on Tuesday morning to commemorate the anniversary of his assassination.
Rafik Hariri was killed with 21 others in an explosion in Beirut in 2005.
Explosives equivalent to about 1,000 kilograms of TNT were detonated as his motorcade drove by the St. George Hotel. Among the dead were several of his bodyguards and former Economy Minister Bassel Fleihan. Hariri had been part of the anti-Syrian opposition in Lebanon.
His assassination sparked The Cedar Revolution, a popular movement that forced Syria to withdraw all its troops from Lebanon in April 2005.
The assassination also led the United Nations to set up the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) to investigate the murder. Last year, the STL sentenced two alleged Hezbollah members, in absentia, to several life sentences in the case.
On Tuesday, Saad Hariri paid his respect to his late father’s grave on the anniversary of his assassination, shook hands with supporters of the Future Movement — who had gathered in the hundreds — and left without giving a planned speech.
A large crowd also shouted slogans in support of Saad Hariri in the courtyard of Beit al-Wasat.
A source close to Beit al-Wasat, Future Movement's headquarters, confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour on Monday that this year's commemoration would take place far from the political tumult, one year after Saad Hariri's withdrawal from the political scene.
In Saida
Many participants traveled to Beirut from Saida, a Future Movement's stronghold. They raised portraits of Rafik Hariri and Saad Hariri, Lebanese flags and banners of the Future Movement, L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the South reported.
Signs with portraits of Rafik Hariri were also posted in several parts of the city, according to a L'Orient Today reporter in the area.
The Coordinator of the Future Movement in Saida and the South, Mazen Hashisho, said Future Movement supporters are renewing “the pledge to the martyred president and pledge allegiance to His Excellency, President Saad al-Hariri and Bahia Hariri [sister of Rafik Hariri] and urge them to continue in his footsteps.”
On the occasion of the commemoration, former Prime Minister and leader of the Future Movement Saad Hariri, who has been living in the United Arab Emirates for the past year, returned to Beirut on Sunday evening.
"Hariri's stay will not exceed three days. The former prime minister will hold meetings with political leaders, religious dignitaries and executives of his party," a source told L’Orient Le-Jour Monday.
On Monday, Saad Hariri visited the Mufti of the Republic, Abdellatif Deriane, according to a tweet posted on Hariri's account.
The younger Hariri was pushed off the political stage after he failed to form a government in July 2021. The Future Movement is dwindling in numbers— devoid of leadership and torn apart by rivalries among members of his inner circle.
For his part, Saad's brother, Baha' Hariri, wrote on Twitter:
"On the occasion of the assassination of my father, Rafik Hariri, we renew our commitment to continue his method and his project, for which he died, and to ensure the unity of Lebanon and the Lebanese, Muslims and Christians."
Baha' Hariri founded a new political party ahead of the May 2022 legislative elections that aimed to oppose the ruling class, but it failed to obtain any seats in Parliament.
Reporting contributed by Muntasser Abdallah.