Former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri greets supporters after performing anniversary prayers at the grave of his father Rafic, assassinated in a 2005 truck bombing © ANWAR AMRO / AFP
Beirut – Thousands of people gathered in the Lebanese capital Wednesday to commemorate the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafic Hariri and urge his son Saad to make a political comeback.
Waving the pale-blue flags of Saad Hariri’s political party the Future Movement, the crowd clapped and cheered as he paid his respects at his father’s tomb in central Beirut.
“We want Saad Hariri to return to Lebanon, so that security and stability return,” said Dina Hleihel, 55, a supporter who was present at the rally.
Hariri was thrust into the political limelight following the February 14, 2005 assassination of his father.
Ever the reluctant politician, he resigned as prime minister after unprecedented nationwide protests broke out in 2019 demanding the wholesale overhaul of Lebanon’s political class.
In 2022, he announced he was leaving politics and boycotted a parliamentary election that year.
Mahmud Hammud, 32, also at the rally, told AFP that “today, all of Lebanon wants Saad Hariri to return to politics, because he can save Lebanon and garner international support.”
Hariri supporters braved driving rain to urge the ex-premier to make a political comeback after he withdrew in 2022 and moved to the United Arab Emirates © ANWAR AMRO / AFP
Despite now living in the United Arab Emirates, Hariri, who returned to Beirut on Sunday ahead of the anniversary, is still considered the country’s main Sunni Muslim leader.
Since the truck-bomb assassination of the former prime minister, which led to an unprecedented popular uprising, Lebanon has navigated a perilous path of violence and political turmoil. The billionaire former Lebanese prime minister, was killed 19 years ago but the legacy of that pivotal event, which sent Lebanon on a perilous path of violence and political turmoil, continues to resonate today.
Once enjoying strong support from Saudi Arabia, Hariri’s relationship with the regional heavyweight deteriorated over the years as the kingdom accused him of being too accommodating to the pro-Iran Hezbollah movement.
The Sunni community, long a major political force which under Lebanon’s delicate sectarian power-sharing system conventionally holds the post of prime minister, has been sidelined and beset by divisions since Hariri’s self-imposed exile.
Former slain Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri, father of ex-PM Saad Hariri was assassinated in downtown Beirut on February 14, 2005. Three Hezbollah operatives Habib Merhi, Hussein Oneissi, and Salim Ayyash were sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by the UN- backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) for killing Hariri, but Hezbollah refused to hand them over to the court .The Assassination of Hariri was according to National Council of Iran Resistance ordered by Ayatollah Khamenei, plotted by Qassem Soleimani, and carried out by Hezbollah the Lebanese Branch of Iran’s IRGC
Political life in Lebanon as a whole has been paralysed for months, with deep divisions between the powerful pro-Iran camp centred around the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, and its adversaries.
The country has been without a president for more than a year, while a caretaker government is at the helm as Lebanon navigates a crushing four-year economic crisis.
Rafic Hariri, a towering figure, was killed in a suicide bombing targeting his armoured convoy.
The attack killed 22 people and injured 226.
In 2022, a United Nations-backed court sentenced three Hezbollah members in absentia to life imprisonment over the huge 2005 truck bombing.
AFP/ France24/ YA LIBNAN
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