Beirut: Since Sa'ad Hariri was thrown into Lebanese politics after his father's assassination five years ago, he has worked to keep the politically and religiously fractious country unified.
Now the question is whether the pragmatic approach he's employed as prime minister will be enough to hold Lebanon together.
In the past year, Sa'ad has tried to maintain good ties with his political enemies. He's kept together an unwieldy coalition that includes the Shiite group Hezbollah, which, according to leaks from an international investigation, is likely to be fingered in his father's killing.
Realising that no Lebanese leader can survive without good ties to the Syrian leadership, Hariri travelled five times to Damascus and recanted an allegation that Syria was behind his father's death. On Saturday, he flew to Tehran to strengthen ties with Hezbollah's sponsor, Iran, firming up a bilateral relationship that rattles the West.
"What I try to focus on," Hariri said in a rare interview in Beirut, "is how to keep the country intact, how to keep the unity of the Lebanese."
That task has become particularly challenging as a United Nations-backed tribunal prepares to issue indictments in his father's killing. Hezbollah has threatened to use violence if its members are accused and has pressured Hariri to stop backing the tribunal. So far Hariri has stood firm — even as some Lebanese have counselled that he should not seek justice for his father at the expense of Lebanese stability. "I'm seeking justice for the country," Hariri said.
For the country
"Nothing's going to return my father to me." After former prime minister Rafik Hariri was killed by a car bomb in February 2005, his son — who had not been involved in politics before — rose to the head of the pro-Western March 14 movement and, in elections last year, became prime minister. Now the tall, fit, 40-year-old billionaire spends his days trying to navigate messy Middle Eastern politics and stay in power.
Sa'ad — who speaks in a muted monotone — insists repeatedly that he can resolve Lebanon's internal differences through calm negotiation.
The problem is that the person with whom he most needs to work things out is Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who has refused to meet with Hariri until he declares that the group had nothing to do with his father's assassination — and recently threatened to "cut off the hand" of anyone who tries to arrest Hezbollah members in the crime.
Despite that stance, Hariri remains supportive of the tribunal. "I don't operate under threats," he said. "I don't buckle to pressure." But Sa'ad has bent to pressure.
To end a political deadlock that had left the country without a government for five months, Hariri last year gave in to Hezbollah's demands regarding cabinet positions.
The power-sharing deal that was struck gave Hezbollah and its allies — which won about half the popular vote in last year's elections — enough power to block initiatives brought forth by Hariri and his allies.
Avoiding a war
Hariri also sought rapprochement with Syria, largely because Saudi Arabia, his chief patron, told him to.
Any Lebanese prime minister might have been forced to make the same moves. One Lebanese analyst, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described Hariri's job as "muddling through and maintaining some calm and avoiding civil war."
One area where Hariri may have fallen short is in day-to-day management of government affairs. Hezbollah has turned every recent cabinet meeting into a debate about the tribunal and blocked consideration of routine initiatives.
Contracts for new broadband systems or other infrastructure projects remain on hold, worrying some of the country's top businessmen, who have appealed to Sa'ad to end the deadlock.
"In terms of his management of government and politics of the country, it's very mixed. He hasn't been terribly impressive," the Lebanese analyst said. But it is trying to survive as prime minister that has been Sa'ad's toughest challenge.
"Sa'ad is the weakest player in the world's most vicious and deadly politics," said Bruce Riedel, a former senior US administration official and CIA analyst now with the Brookings Institution. Sa'ad represents the Sunni community, which, along with the Christians, has steadily lost stature and influence to Lebanon's Shiites since the end of the civil war in 1990. His chief foreign allies — Saudi Arabia, the United States and France — are far away and fitful in their engagement.
Sa'ad doesn't have the military or political power to disarm Hezbollah, as the United States and others have pressured him and previous Lebanese leaders to do. And he acknowledges that the militia must be dealt with respectfully.
"In the end, Hezbollah is a political party that has, in its region in parts of Lebanon, won members of parliament so they were elected democratically. So either we want to respect that democracy or we don't," Sa'ad said.
Excerpts from an interview:
Washington Post: What's your general sense of the situation here at the moment?
Sa'ad Hariri: It's a totally new country, and even just four years ago after the 2006 war (with Israel), between direct and indirect loss we had and the lives that we lost, the country picked up again. The main problem that we have in Lebanon, and in the region, is we don't have a real peace process... A lot of people talk about arms and smuggling and Hezbollah and all of this. But if we have a comprehensive peace, would we be talking about this?
If we had resolved the issue in 1991 in Madrid when we went there when we didn't have all these problems today, if we had achieved peace in the ‘90s would we be today here?
In the ‘90s there wasn't Al Qaida, there wasn't Hamas, there wasn't all these extremist groups. But today look where we are 19 years later.
My question is if we don't move on the peace process, on a comprehensive peace in the Middle East-based on the Madrid conference, based on the (2002) Arab initiative, where will be 10 years down the line? Is anybody comprehending how extremism is growing in this region?
Is the West not understanding this?
I think the international community needs to have a wake-up call and they should wake up. It's high time that this process... and everybody knows what they need to do.
What's it like for you right now? How do you deal with the stresses that I imagine you are under?
I don't feel like it's stress. I feel like it's a challenging period. What I try to focus on is how to keep the country intact, how to keep the unity of the Lebanese, which is going to be very difficult and is very difficult. But you have to be very absorbent. You have to be like a sponge.
You have to see beyond the smoke that is around you. And it's not going to be easy. Nobody's going to give you everything on a silver tray.
Lebanon is always a fury of politics so sometimes it's hard to see if it's really at a unique crisis moment or there is a lot of hyperbole.
What I think what one needs to do is see beyond what's happening now and if you try to see beyond that then you're fine. Sometimes it's difficult. Sometimes, the smoke is so heavy. But I think persisting and continuing in the same vision will get you there.
How did you feel during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit here in October?
Like any president. He came, he visited Lebanon, and he left. He said what he wanted to say and I said what I wanted to say, what I believe. I told him this axis of what you're saying, that you mentioned, we don't agree. I said to him very frankly we do not agree on being an axis.
During a one-on-one meeting?
Yeah. I said to him that we believe that we are part of the Arab League. The Arab peace initiative was made in Beirut. We believe in that.
It didn't bother you to see him received in the Hezbollah-strong neighbourhoods of Dahiyeh with the enormous crowds? It seemed to worry the US.
I'm Lebanese. I have a different look on things like this. He's a president. He came to Lebanon. Some people received him in Dahiyeh. So what?
What have your visits to Syria been like?
I became prime minister of Lebanon. I have to have good relationships with all Arab countries, and one of them is Syria. We needed to open a new page with Syria, so I did... We had very frank talks between me and President Bashar Al Assad. I said how I see the relationship between two states respecting each other, two states wanting to establish relationships between their institutions. There is a lot of potential economically between Lebanon and Syria.
His story: Through The years
Sa'ad Hariri wasn't destined to be prime minister.When his father was assassinated, he was running one of the most profitable construction companies in the world, Saudi Oger.
The family's success in that and other businesses has made him the 536th richest man in the world, with a wealth estimated at $1.9 billion (Dh6.9 billion), according to Forbes magazine. Despite the fervent Lebanese nationalism he articulates in every public appearance, Sa'ad has spent much of his life studying or working abroad.
Today, his wife and three children live in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.
":I want my children to have a normal life. To be here in Lebanon with all the threats we get sometimes, I don't want them to live with 100 security [guards] and all of that," Sa'ad said.The security threats mean Sa'ad spends much of his time at home, hosting a parade of politicians, visiting diplomats and businessmen.
When he leaves his compound, it is mostly for travel abroad, including trips to enjoy scuba diving and riding motorcycles in Saudi Arabia.
But Hariri's most significant trips since becoming prime minister in June 2009 have been to Syria.The retraction of his allegation that Syria killed his father appeared made more out of political necessity than total conviction."We needed to open a new page with Syria, so I did," Sa'ad said when pressed about the reasons for his about-face."In 2005, there was a lot of tension and I think there were a lot of allegations... I believe taking a courageous step to moving forward and clearing the relationship with a nation or country like Syria is important. I said what I had to, what I believe, and still do."
