Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri met on Monday, at Qoteitem, his residence in Beirut, former Hezbollah minister Mohammad Fneish and party MP Amine Sherri, who presented him with an invitation to the popular funeral, scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 23, of former Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and his presumed successor Hashem Safieddine, assassinated in Israeli strikes at the end of 2024.

Hezbollah invited high-ranking Lebanese figures to the funeral, including President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and the head of the Maronite Church, Patriarch Bechara Rai, among others. The response of these three figures is not known, nor is the possibility of an official representation at the ceremony. On Monday, Emirati businessman Khalaf Ahmad al-Habtoor warned of "the end of Lebanon" in the event of an official representation on Feb. 23 at the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah. 

Having returned to Lebanon last week to participate in the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the assassination of his father, former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005, Saad Hariri has since met with numerous Lebanese officials and ambassadors based in Beirut. In his speech on Feb. 14, Hariri largely blamed his father’s assassination on the ousted Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad – and not on Hezbollah, members of which were indicted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. He also refrained from discussing Hezbollah’s arsenal more explicitly, limiting himself to calling for the implementation of 1701 – which also refers to the disarmament of the Shiite party. 

'True independence'

Also on Monday, Hariri met with delegations from the Lebanese Forces (LF) and Kataeb. In a statement, Kataeb said that its leader, MP Samy Gemayel, had consulted with Hariri on the ongoing events in Lebanon.

After the LF meeting with the former prime minister, MP Georges Adwan said that "those who assassinated [former prime minister] Rafik Hariri have left, leaving behind hatred and scattered peoples." A special international tribunal, established several years later to try the case, sentenced in absentia to life sentences three members of Hezbollah, an ally of the Assad regime in Lebanon, for their involvement in the attack.

The LF MP also said that "the circumstances are now conducive to true independence, and the state has the opportunity to regain its decision-making power. We must not let this chance pass us by."

"We will join all loyal Lebanese who want to seize this opportunity, and this was at the center of our discussion with Hariri," he stated.  His remarks come as Lebanon elected its new president, Joseph Aoun, on Jan. 9, after almost two years of vacancy. On Feb. 8, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam formed his cabinet.

In a speech on Friday, Hariri also announced the return of his party, the Future Movement, to the political scene after a two-year hiatus.

Rafik Hariri was killed on Feb. 14, 2005, when a truck bomb exploded near his convoy outside the Saint-Georges Hotel. 21 others were killed alongside the former prime minister, and more than 200 were injured. His assassination marked a turning point in Lebanon, sparking the Cedar Revolution, which eventually led, two months later, to the end of the 15-year occupation of Lebanon by the Syrian Assad regime, widely held responsible for Hariri’s assassination.