BEIRUT, 19 February 2005 — A Lebanese Cabinet minister resigned yesterday amid mounting public calls for the entire pro-Syrian government to stand down following the killing of former billionaire Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Lebanon’s anti-Syria opposition has accused the government and its political masters in Damascus of having a hand in the massive bomb blast that killed Hariri and 14 other people in Beirut on Monday and sent shockwaves through the nation.
The assassination recalled the dark days of the 1975-1990 civil war and raised tensions with Syria, which is also facing the heat from the international community over its political and military sway in Lebanon. Tourism Minister Farid Al-Khazen announced his resignation as life in Lebanon gradually returned to normal after a three-day mourning period for Hariri, with shops, banks and financial markets open again for business.
“The current government is incapable of resolving the dangerous situation in the country,” said Khazen, considered loyal to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud. His decision came as the opposition was meeting to try to rally a mass public mobilization against the government after the killing of Hariri, a five-time prime minister and a billionaire tycoon who led the country’s postwar rebuilding.
The Lebanese opposition blames the Beirut government and President Bashar Assad’s regime in Damascus for the murder of Hariri, who quit in October in a row with Lahoud over Syria’s influence. “The regime ... should take the political initiative of opening up to the opposition by declaring its readiness to meet its demand in forming a special government to run and supervise the legislative elections (due in May),” said prominent former Prime Minister Salim Hoss.
Hariri’s funeral on Wednesday turned into a mass rally against the regimes in Lebanon and Syria, which has 14,000 troops in its smaller neighbor and pulls the strings in the corridors of power. The Ad Diyar newspaper called on the government to take steps to end the “atmosphere of dangerous divisions”, saying: “This government cannot go on, Prime Minister (Omar) Karameh is mistaken if he does not resign...this is a national duty.
Leading Druze opposition figure Walid Jumblatt also delivered a virulent attack on the regime, pledging that “the day will come when we will sweep away the dirt of this criminal, collaborating regime, a regime of terrorism.”
Hariri’s sons have pledged to take on the political and charitable mantle of their slain father. The Hariris have committed themselves to his political allies and family insiders expect the former prime minister’s eldest son to run in parliamentary elections by May.
