16 years since Hariri’s assassination.. Lebanon’s stranglehold on “Hezbollah” is exhausting
The crises have been the most prominent feature of the 16 years since the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in a blockade designed by Hezbollah.
A landmark event in modern Lebanese history, which exposed the terrorist militia and confirmed their involvement in the country’s crises, especially after their member was convicted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon for “participating in the deliberate assassination of Rafic Hariri “.
The assassination that took place on February 14, 2005, Lebanon entered a new phase, and opened the door for Hezbollah to essentially enter power, which perpetuated the political division and put the militia and their allies ( the March 8 team) against the “Future Movement” (which was led by Hariri, and their leadership was transferred to his son Saad Hariri), in alliance with the “Lebanese Forces Party” and the “Progressive Socialist Party” And a number of parties.
Since then, Hezbollah has started to effectively enter the orbit of power, even though their grip was not far from him, even though it was not directly involved, which was evident in the government led by Omar Karami, who is close to him when Hariri was assassinated, to return and resign in light of popular anger.
But Karami’s resignation did not mean Hezbollah’s departure from power, which was clearly demonstrated in his support for the formation of a government led by Najib Mikati, in which he and his allies, especially the president of the then Republic, Emile Lahoud, won the ministerial majority, which forced him to stick to his decision.
In the Mikati government, legislative elections were held in which the March 14 party (opposed to Hezbollah) which won a remarkable victory and won a parliamentary majority, after Fouad Siniora, one of the most prominent close collaborators of the late Rafik Hariri, returned to the government on July 16, 2005, and this is what happened so that the team will have a majority in number of ministers.
Successive crises
Since 2005, Lebanon has experienced successive political and security crises and assassinations have been carried out mainly against opponents of Hezbollah, which has exacerbated sectarian and political tensions with the “March 14” coalition accusing Hezbollah of being one responsible.
In July 2006, a war broke out between Hezbollah and Israel which led to the destruction of Lebanon, and at that point voices were raised, accusing the militia of their making, but the latter returned the slap, claiming that the Prime Minister did not stand by his side in the war, through popular movements which were followed by presenting ministers. The Shiites have resigned and Environment Minister Yaqoub Sarraf, affiliated with the President of the Republic, is joining them, in an attempt to lose the legitimacy of the government.
The next most important and dangerous event was what is known in Lebanon as the security events of “May 7” 2008, after the decisions taken by the government of Fouad Siniora regarding the Hezbollah communications network, which the latter considered directed against him, to transform the military confrontation against the “Movement of the future” and “the Progressive Socialist Party”, claiming that his weapons are also directed against his own people.
The clashes led to widespread Arab interference and a special conference for Lebanon under the auspices of the Arab League was held in Qatar, which ended with the “Doha Agreement”, which included an agreement to elect the then army chief, Michel Suleiman, as President of the Republic, and to elect him on May 25, 2008 to succeed Emile Lahoud, who ended his term in November 2007.
Later, a government was also formed, headed by Siniora, in which the “March 14” coalition won a majority of ministers, and their mission was mainly to oversee the legislative elections of June 2009, with more than 200 foreign observers, in which the aforementioned coalition won victory by securing 71 MPs, Saad Hariri succeeded for the first time as prime minister since his father’s assassination.
But the start of Hariri’s governmental path was not paved due to the obstruction he encountered by the then leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, Michel Aoun, and his son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, with the support from their ally, Hezbollah, as Aoun stuck to a ministerial request to his losing son-in-law in the legislative elections, prompting Hariri to apologize for his mission, return and be posted again after about two weeks and successfully form a government in December 2009.
In the context of Hezbollah’s continued struggle against the International Tribunal for the Assassination of Hariri, and his refusal to recognize them and his attempt to disrupt their work, he and his allies have deliberately toppled the Hariri government through the resignation of 10 ministers of the bloc led by Bassil, in alliance with Hezbollah and the Amal movement, which devoured the resignation of Minister of State Adnan M. Hussein He is also close to Hezbollah, which was affiliated with President Michel Suleiman, and thus the government Hariri was overthrown after the resignation of more than a third of his ministers and the loss of his constitutional quorum, and became an interim government.
The issue remained the same until the formation of the new government on June 13, 2011, when Najib Mikati was assigned as head of government with the support of Hezbollah and their allies, and at the time he was one opponents of Hariri, but his government did not gain confidence in the votes of the party and their allies until after the team’s withdrawal on March 14 a dispute over the militia weapon issue in the ministerial statement.
In the same year, the Syrian crisis, which was reflected in the Lebanese scene, which was divided between supporters of the regime and those who opposed them, began to exacerbate matters even more with the overt intervention of Hezbollah in the war in 2013, which sparked tension and sharp disagreements, the repercussions of which continue to this day.
During the reign of Michel Suleiman, the anti-Hezbollah team returned to the post of prime minister by assigning Tammam Salam, who is close to Hariri, but his mission has not been easy in the face of the usual obstruction of Hezbollah either.
But Hariri’s return was also linked to exceptional political circumstances in Lebanon, where tension was at their highest and a vacuum in the presidency for a period of two and a half years, after the end of Michel Suleiman’s mandate, and all. this was a follow-up to the disruption by Hezbollah and their allies, led by the Free Patriotic Movement, which holds a majority in parliament, for their refusal to elect anyone else, despite the appointment of a number of prominent figures from the opposition, including the leader of the Lebanese Forces Party, to finally succeed in their pressure, and Aoun will be elected president in November 2016.
In 2018, the first parliamentary elections took place after a triple extension of parliament due to the political situation, and following the agreement on a new electoral law, in which Hezbollah and their allies guaranteed the parliamentary majority, and therefore their control of the cabinet by representing the parliamentary blocs with the ministers who are affiliated to them.
However, forming the government does not mean facilitating their work, as the obstruction continued and the government failed to do anything that would positively reflect the already deteriorating Lebanese situation, leading to the fall of the Hariri government under pressure from the street in October 2019, a decision that Hezbollah opposed, to which it felt that Hariri should not submit to pressure, which the latter did not respect, and he considered his decision to l era as a blow to Hezbollah and the pact (President Michel Aoun) which had made promises of reform and change, but none of them succeeded.
After Hariri’s resignation, Hezbollah and their allies formed in January 2020 a government that was fully accountable to them on behalf of their president Hassan Diab to all his ministers, and he made slogans and promises to the Lebanese people that he could never realize due to the differences between the same team, until the explosion in the port of Beirut happened. On August 4 of the same year, she shakes the ground under the feet of the ruling class.
Although the investigations did not lead to definitive conclusions as to the reason for the presence of “ammonium nitrate” in the port, voices were raised to accuse Hezbollah of being responsible, directly or indirectly, in particular of their control over the installations in Lebanon, in particular the port.
A disaster that restored international interest in Lebanon after his departure for reasons mainly related to Hezbollah’s control over him, during which French President Emmanuel Macron visited Beirut and proposed an initiative for form a mini-government of non-politicians, according to the principle of rotation in the distribution of ministries on portfolios, which was agreed by the parties, Ambassador Mustafa Adeeb was tasked with carrying out the mission, before the Shiite duo (Hezbollah and Amal movement) did not back down and obstruct their formation because of their membership to retain the finance ministry, which led Adeeb to apologize for terminating his efforts.
Circumstances which again led Hariri to confrontation and stood for the head of a government in accordance with the French initiative, which President Aoun and his son-in-law initially opposed, to be subsequently subjected – to the following parliamentary majority voting – and to be awarded again last October.
The same scenario was repeated before Hariri’s mission by Bassil and Aoun, supported by their ally Hezbollah, by imposing the condition that they obtain the third obstruction to the government, that is to say seven of the 18 ministers, in addition to their demands for the portfolios of the Interior, Justice and Defense, which is rejected by Hariri, who does not continue the confrontation and adheres to the French initiative, in a split which reflects the absence of any hope close to the possibility of forming a government, which some associate while awaiting the green light from Iran.
Following the cancellation of the annual ceremonies organized by the Future Movement to mark the anniversary of Hariri’s assassination, is expected that this year will be limited to a televised speech by his son Saad.
