Saad Hariri gathering himself on his father's grave, Rafic Hariri, in Beirut, February 14, 2024. Photo Joao Sousa / L'Orient-le Jour
BEIRUT — Self-exiled, former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri marked the 19th anniversary of his father's assassination today, in the presence of hundreds of supporters in Beirut.
On Feb. 14, 2005, then- Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, along with 21 other people, was killed when a truck bomb equivalent to one thousand kilograms of TNT exploded, engulfing his motorcade, ripping the facade off nearby buildings, and creating a huge crater in the ground, just outside of the well-known St. George Hotel in Beirut.
Saad Hariri greeted thousands of supporters in Martyrs' Square, surrounded by a dense ring of security guards. Fireworks, slogans in praise of the Hariri's, and partisan songs playing over loudspeakers prevailed despite the rain.
The crowd gathered in the city center of Beirut, Feb. 14, 2024. (Credit: Joao Sousa/L'Orient Today)
Hariri payed his respects at his father's tomb, then told the crowd: "The pulse of the country is here. Preserve it. Protect the country." Then he added, somewhat cryptically: "All in good time."
L'Orient Today spoke with some of the attendees to get a sense of the crowd. Ahmad Ali said he's proud to see Saad Hariri back after two years, and greeted by a huge crowd "despite everything," and without much organization. "I ask Saad Hariri to reconsider his decision to suspend his political activities. Let him come back to us so that we can save Lebanon from collapse," Ali said.
"Sheikh Rafik was the only one who loved this country, and so does his son. During the 2019 Revolution, he was the only one to respond to the people."
Saad Hariri had announced the resignation of his government a few days after the start of large-scale protests against the political regime in October 2019. He was subsequently reappointed President of the Council in October 2020, but failed to form a new cabinet.
Hundreds of people flocked to Beirut's city center to express their desire for Hariri's political return. Hundreds of cars and buses dressed with the blue flag of the Future Movement were seen on the highway north of Beirut. Convoys of Future supporters also left from Saida, in the south.
Supporters of Saad Hariri in the city center of Beirut, Feb. 14, 2024. (Credit: Joao Sousa/L'Orient Today)
Before boarding one of the buses, Ibrahim el-Sabeh told L'Orient Today: "I'm going to take part in the commemoration, renew my commitment to Sheikh Saad and ask him to stay in the country. I want to tell him that after he left, the economic situation collapsed."
Another woman in Saida, Arabiya al-Qodsi, said she was going to Beirut to "meet Saad Hariri, the light of Lebanon, and tell him that we don't want him to leave."
Addressing the crowd again at the Maison du Centre, his residence in the Beirut neighborhood of Koraytem, Hariri said: "Wherever I am, I am with you. Saad Hariri will not abandon the people."
"Everything in its own time," he reiterated, before calling on his supporters to "tell everyone that you are back and that without you, nothing works in this country."
A bus passing in front of a sign in tribute to Rafic Hariri in Saida. (Credit: Abdallah Mountasser/L'Orient Today)Saad Hariri retired from Lebanese politics in January 2022 and now resides in the United Arab Emirates. But his return to Beirut this year is being closely scrutinized, both by political figures and by supporters of the Future Movement, the party he led.
Some hope that he will re-enter the Lebanese political scene, as the Sunni community has been unable to unite around a leader since his departure.
Saad's brother son, Baha' Hariri, who entered politics momentarily, in the run-up to the 2022 legislative elections and after the departure of his brother Saad, before stepping aside, also celebrated his father's memory and called for "his project of economic and political development" in Lebanon to be brought to fruition.
Baha' said this project "did not die" with his father, and claimed that "uniting" around the former prime minister's "vision and dream is the key to solving all the political, economic, financial and social problems from which all the components of the people suffer."
Beirut MP Fouad Makhzoumi paid tribute on X to the "martyr of moderation, dialogue and national positions."
"We once again demand justice for the martyrs of Lebanon's freedom, independence and sovereignty," he wrote.
A woman aboard a bus on the glass of which is stuck a portrait of Rafic Hariri, Feb. 14, 2024. (Credit: Joao Sousa/L'Orient Today) In April 2021, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon sentenced Salim Jamil Ayache in absentia to life imprisonment, before imposing the same sentence on Hassan Habib Merhi and Hussein Hassan Oneissi in June 2022. All three men are suspected members of Hezbollah and will probably never be brought before court.
Tripoli MP and member of the Renewal Bloc, Ashraf Rifi, "promised the martyr and all those who died for independence that we will continue our fight until justice is done and sovereignty is respected."
He accused the "Axis of the Resistance" of having ordered the assassination of the former prime minister, recalling that "those who killed him were condemned by the International Tribunal" and that "Lebanese personalities were assassinated so that we could obtain justice."
He singled out "the two Wissams," Wissam Eid, a senior intelligence official killed in an attack in January 2008, while in charge of the technical side of the investigation into the explosion on Feb. 14, 2005, and Wissam al-Hassan, a former intelligence chief killed in October 2012.
MP Samy Gemayel, leader of the Kataeb party, felt that "justice remains incomplete, despite the convictions of the TSL, which proved the involvement of Hezbollah, which continues to protect the guilty parties."
"There can be no peace or stability in Lebanon without justice and accountability for all the crimes committed," he said.
"We call on the Hariri family, its current and its supporters to continue the struggle to restore the state and free its decision-making power from the domination of arms," he added.
MP Tony Frangieh, son of presidential candidate Sleiman Frangieh, lamented that "Lebanon lacks statesmen and visionaries working for the rebirth" of the country.
Former minister Michel Pharaon wrote on X that "the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was intended to kill Lebanon as we know it ... Saad Hariri's departure is a major national loss."