On February 14, 2005 a massive explosion in Lebanon’s capital cast the country – and the region as a whole – into turmoil. Twelve people lost their lives in the bombing, including former prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri. Between 1975 and 1989, Lebanon was gripped by a devastating civil war, which was ended, in large part due to Al-Hariri’s own efforts, with the Ta’if Agreement. His death, experts fear, might throw Lebanon into yet another civil war.
Al-Hariri ruled five times as Lebanon’s prime minister, between 1992 and his resignation in October 2004 (he was defeated only once, in the 1998 elections, but resumed power in 2000).
A previously unknown Muslim group, A-Nu’sra Wal-Jihad, took responsibility for the attack, claiming it was a punishment for Al-Hariri’s close connections with the Saudi royal family. But many within Lebanon, as well as beyond its borders, suspect Syria was responsible for this attack, because of Al-Hariri’s repeated clashes with the Syrian regime.
According to an article published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, one such clash occurred when Al-Hariri’s newspaper Al-Mustaqbal responded to a rocket attack on northern Israel by Syrian-backed Hizbullah in April 2001. The paper questioned whether Lebanon could “bear the consequences of such an operation and its political, economic, and social impacts.” Syrian President Bashar Al-Asad refused to receive Al-Hariri for a full month after this was published.
However, Al-Hariri took his strongest stand against Syria when he resigned from his position as prime minister in October 2004. The resignation followed Syria’s imposition of an unconstitutional third term of presidency for Emil Lahoud. Since then Al-Hariri called – from the opposition seats – on Syria to immediately evacuate all its military forces (some 14,000 soldiers) from Lebanon.
The assassination comes only four months before the Lebanese parliamentary elections. Al-Hariri was the opposition’s most powerful member, and with him gone it will have no one of his caliber to replace him. Syria, while denouncing the assassination by calling it a “horrendous crime,” is already trying to gain profits from it. Its official news agency SANA declared that Syria is now the only force that can save Lebanon from security deterioration.
One of Lebanon’s opposition leaders, Walid Jumblatt, blamed the Lebanese regime directly for the assassination, saying, “The Syrian-backed [Lebanese] terror regime is responsible for the crime of Al-Hariri’s assassination. We must work for a free and democratic Lebanon, which the opposition is fighting for, as did Rafiq Al-Hariri.”
Following the assassination, the United States recalled its Ambassador to Syria Margaret Scobey and considered further sanctions against the country. Scobey delivered a strong rebuke to the Syrian regime for failing to comply with U.N. Resolution 1559, which called for the withdrawal of all Syrian military forces from Lebanon. The question now is what kind of pressure will be inflicted on Syria to implement this resolution. With Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s statement, that the U.S. has a “growing list of differences” with Syria, it is perhaps just a matter of time.
Yet the question of a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon might not be the biggest problem for this country. Still recovering from a prolonged civil war between its various ethnic groups, Lebanon may now be on the brink of yet another civil war.
Throwing caution to the wind, Sunni Grand Mufti Sheikh Muhammad Rashid Qabbani condemned the assassination, calling it “an attack against all Sunnis in Lebanon.” Qabbani added that this was “an attack on the Sunnis’ presence in the country. It is, as well, an attack on their role and their dignity.” Qabbani’s remarks were made during an urgent meeting at the Sunni religious headquarters immediately after the attack, also attended by current Prime Minister ‘Umar Karami – a Sunni himself. Qabbani told Karami that, “this meeting for the Sunnis of Lebanon is urgently needed to discuss the dangerous situation resulting from the horrible crime that has killed former prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri.”