Beirut: Lebanon’s new prime minister Sa’ad Hariri, the son of former billionaire premier Rafik Hariri, is a vociferous critic of Hezbollah and the Syrian regime which he blames for his father’s assassination. He was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on April 18, 1970 to Rafik Hariri and Nida Bustani (of Iraqi origin).
The son of a man who brokered the 1989 Taif Accords that ended Lebanon’s raging civil war, Hariri was schooled in Europe and earned a business degree in 1992 from the McDonough School of Business Administration at Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C.
Destined for a business career, which he embarked upon in Saudi Arabia after 1992, Hariri managed his father’s highly successful conglomerate, Saudi Oger, which included Oger Telecom, Omnia Holdings, and Oger International Entreprise de Travaux Internationaux.
He returned to Beirut in 2005 after his father was assassinated, and assumed the family leadership mantle on April 20 that year, as the head of the Future Movement.
Largely composed of pro-Hariri Sunni leaders, Future expanded and led the anti-Syrian March 14 coalition, which assembled political groups that gained momentum after the 2005 Cedar Revolution, including major Christian parties like the Lebanese Forces (LF) and the Phalange Party.
At the time, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), which Michel Aoun founded, sided with the pro-Syria March 8 coalition, led by Hezbollah.
Hariri ran for office and won a seat in parliament both in 2005 and 2009 and, as the leader of the largest parliamentary bloc, was appointed prime minister by President Michel Sulaiman on November 9, 2009.
His government crumbled as FPM and Hezbollah ministers, led by Jibran Bassil, Aoun’s son-in-law, resigned from the Cabinet leading to its collapse on January 12, 2011.
They resigned in protest against Hariri’s backing of the UN Security Council’s approval of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) which was operating to investigate and prosecute those responsible for his father’s assassination.
The Syrian regime and Hezbollah operatives have since then been implicated but justice has not yet been delivered.
At the time, Aoun boasted that he would buy a “one way ticket” for Hariri to leave the country, which the fallen premier did, citing security concerns.
He returned to Lebanon unannounced on August 8, 2014 for the first time in three years, and entered into various presidential backings, starting with the LF’s Samir Geagea and later with the Marada Movement’s Sulaiman Franjieh.
Hariri opted to back Aoun on October 16 because, he concluded, there were no other choices left.
On December 12, 2012, Syria issued an arrest warrant against Hariri, Future bloc deputy Okab Saqr and Louay Meqdad (a Syrian opposition figure), accusing them of arming and providing financial support for Syrian groups engaged in the anti-regime uprisings.
In turn, Hariri issued a statement labelling Syrian President Bashar Al Assad a “monster”.
Hariri, who holds dual Lebanese and Saudi citizenship, is married to Lara Bashir Al Azem (from a leading Syrian family) and has three children, Hussam (born 1999), Loulwa (born 2001), and Abdul Aziz (born 2005).
