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Hariri and Hezbollah Face Off

Former Lebanese PM calls for protests on symbolic March 14

by
Marc Tracy
February 15, 2011
Saad Hariri yesterday at a memorial for his slain father.(Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images)
Saad Hariri yesterday at a memorial for his slain father.(Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images)

Yesterday, on the sixth anniversary of his father’s assassination, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who up until a month ago had governed with Hezbollah, announced that he would not join the unity cabinet put together by the new PM, the Hezbollah stooge Hezbollah-backed Najib Mikati, but instead would join the official opposition. He furthermore called on Lebanon to respect the results of the U.N. tribunal investigating the death of his father, Rafik—a body believed to be preparing indictments not only against Syrian actors, as was originally assumed, but against Hezbollah officials who are themselves Lebanese—a much bigger P.R. problem for the Iran-backed indigenous Shiite group, which the Sunni Hariri accused of “lies, betrayal and lack of loyalty.”

Hariri called for mass protests in a month—on March 14, the day that 2005’s Cedar Revolution, which was prompted by outrage at the assassination, began, and the day that lent its name to Hariri’s movement. Expect a storm.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.