Lebanon Must Rethink Ties With Hezbollah, Says Eldest Hariri Son
Lebanon Must Rethink Ties With Hezbollah, Says Eldest Hariri Son
(Bloomberg) --
Lebanon’s politicians must rethink their longstanding accommodation with Hezbollah and establish a non-sectarian government capable of rebuilding a state devastated by multiple crises, Bahaa Hariri, the eldest son of the slain former prime minister, said a day after an international court convicted a member of the pro-Iranian armed group of the murder.
“This symbiotic marriage, relationship, between Hezbollah and the warlords and all who supported them, this configuration must come to an end,” Hariri, owner of Horizon Group, a real estate company with investments in Lebanon and Jordan, told Bloomberg Television in an interview.
Though he’d been on reasonable terms with Hezbollah, Rafiq Hariri, the father, became vocal in his opposition to Syria’s tutelage over Lebanon in the months before his 2005 assassination. The Saudi-backed leader was part of a group calling for the withdrawal of Syrian troops and the disarmament of militias, which would have dealt a debilitating blow to Hezbollah’s military and strategic supremacy in Lebanon.
In the aftermath of the murder, which sparked massive anti-Syrian protests, Bahaa was sidelined in favor of his brother Saad as heir to his father’s political legacy. He has become increasingly vocal in his criticism of the political class, the same coterie of aging men who fought each other during the 1975-1990 civil war, blaming them for the country’s financial collapse and political decay even before a massive blast ripped through Beirut on Aug. 4, killing more than 200 people and devastating parts of the city. The blast was caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate left for years at the port.
The seven-month-old government, facing furious street protests, resigned a few days after the explosion, having failed to push through reforms or make a breakthrough in stalled talks with the International Monetary Fund.
Saad has been prime minister in several governments since his father was killed, sitting alongside Hezbollah and its allies, who now hold the majority in parliament, in a self-declared bid to avoid divisions that have nevertheless paralyzed decision-making.
Critics say Saad failed to stand up to Hezbollah, even as its political influence grew, losing him the long-standing support of Saudi Arabia. His latest government resigned in October following weeks of street protests against a corrupt and dysfunctional political elite.
Bahaa, widely believed to have political ambitions of his own, said he did not want the premiership but planned to play a bigger role in Lebanon. Progress could only be achieved through a nonsectarian government that breaks with the old framework that has failed the country for so long, he said.
“It has to be a unity of technocratic government, non-sectarian,” he said, and focus on “construction, aid, IMF, World Bank.”
On Tuesday, a United Nations-backed court convicted one Hezbollah member in the assassination of the father, a prominent Sunni Muslim figure behind the rebuilding of downtown Beirut following the civil war, but acquitted three others due to lack of conclusive evidence.
The court also said there was not enough evidence to directly link the leadership of Hezbollah and Syria to the assassination, though it said they had a clear motive.
In his interview, Hariri said he was not disappointed in the tribunal’s verdict.
“The most important thing is that the indirect evidence showed clearly that there was no political vacuum, that it was a political act, a political assassination,” he said.
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