BEIRUT, 23 December 2005 — Lebanese MP Saad Hariri, the son and political heir of slain ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, has accused the “terrorist regime” in Syria of seeking to topple the Beirut government, newspapers said yesterday.
“I am convinced that a war is being launched against us by a terrorist regime which is seeking to change the Lebanese democratic regime,” Hariri was quoted as saying in extracts from an interview which was aired late yesterday by Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television.
Rafiq Hariri’s assassination in a Beirut bomb blast on Feb. 14 led to protests and international pressure that forced Syria to end its 29-year military presence in its smaller neighbor.
Syria was the key powerbroker in Lebanon for nearly three decades.
An international investigation has implicated a number of Lebanese and Syrian officials in Hariri’s murder, although Damascus denies any involvement.
But a series of bomb attacks against Syrian critics in Lebanon over the past year has forced Saad Hariri and other anti-Syrian figures to take refuge abroad for security reasons.
Since then, Hariri has been sharing his time between France and Saudi Arabia, where he runs the multi-billion-dollar empire created by his slain father.
“The Syrian regime found itself alone in the middle of troubled waters, whereas before Feb. 14, many friends had been ready to help it and give advice to its officials who will now only reap what they sow,” Hariri said.
The parliamentary majority led by Hariri and influential Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has refused any political compromise and continues to demand the truth about Rafiq Hariri’s killing.
An anti-Syrian MP told AFP that Hariri fears that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad — who flew to Cairo for talks with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday — was seeking Arab help to clear Damascus of the crime.
And an MP from Jumblatt’s bloc, Wael Abu Faour, said Arab League chief Amr Mussa — who is attempting to ease tensions between Lebanon and Syria — was not welcome in Beirut if he was seeking to clear Syria of Hariri’s assassination.
“If Amr Mussa is coming to Lebanon to hide the political evidence of the assassination after others tried to hide material evidence... or to clear the criminals, he is not welcome at all,” he was quoted as saying.
“Lebanese demands are clear, the first being the punishment of the criminals whatever their political or military ranks were.”
Abu Faour warned that Mussa’s mission might be meant to “find a compromise — a halt to political assassinations in exchange for a halt to Lebanese media campaigns” against Syria.
A member of the Hariri bloc in parliament, Ahmad Fatfat, told Al-Balad newspaper that “if he (Mussa) is coming to seek the truth, he is welcome, if not, we are not ready to abandon our search for the truth.”
Mussa, who visited the Lebanese and Syrian capitals earlier this month, was expected to resume his shuttle mission soon.
