PROFILE: Saad Hariri carrying father's legacy becomes Lebanon premier

By Weedah Hamzah Jun 27, 2009, 13:14 GMT

Beirut - Four years after the assassination of his father, former five-time prime minister Rafik Hariri, the youthful Saad Hariri has become Lebanon's new head of government, vowing to unite Lebanon and work for the interest of his country.

Saad Hariri, whose mother is Iraqi, grew up in Saudi Arabia. Married with three children, he is Rafik Hariri's second eldest son and a businessman, and like each of his brothers and sisters, he is on the Forbes magazine list of the richest people in the world.

Four years ago, however, he had little political experience.

But Rafik Harari's murder on February 14, 2005 in a massive car bomb blast in Beirut shook to their foundations both Lebanon and the Hariri family, who decided that Saad should take over his father's legacy.

It was a difficult task for the young businessman, but one he succeeded at, with his parliamentary bloc winning two legislative elections to rule the country in 2005 and 2009.

Hariri, a 39-year-old moderate Sunni Muslim, will replace his father's long-time friend and close aide, Fouad Seniora, in a political alliance that dealt a major setback on June 7 to the opposition led by Islamist group Hezbollah and its Syrian and Iranian backers. The Hariri-led alliance won 71 seats while the opposition secured 57.

According to Lebanon's constitution, the majority have the right to name the country's Sunni premier, thus pushing the young Hariri to the forefront.

When the Hariri alliance won the majority in parliament in 2005 a few months after his father's death, he refused the premiership and preferring to leave it to his father's ally Seniora. According to close aides, the younger Hariri felt he needed more time to gain experience in Lebanon's complex political landscape.

As well, during the past four years, one of Hariri's main concerns has been to lobby internationally for the UN Special Tribunal to try suspects in his father's assassination, which he and his allies have blamed on neighbouring former powerbroker Syria.

Saad himself has also received assassination threats, and attacks have already taken the lives of nine of his close anti-Syrian allies, among them parliamentarians Jubran Tueini, Walid Eido, Pierre Gemayel and Antoine Ghanem.

These threats had kept Hariri under tight security and prevented him from moving freely in the country.

In May 2008, political crisis turned bloody, with street battles between Hariri followers and the opposition, during which the Hezbollah managed to seize much of the capital and besiege Hariri in his Beirut residence for several days.

In what was described as a 'May coup' by Hezbollah against the Western-backed majority, Hezbollah forced the majority to accept concessions in a conference organized by Qatar on May 25.

The majority accepted that a new national unity government be formed by Seniora, with the opposition having veto power on cabinet decisions.

Today however Hariri felt the confidence to take on the country's premiership.

In a victory speech after the June elections, Hariri called on the Lebanese to close ranks.

'We must extend hands to each other, roll up our sleeves and work together for the benefit of Lebanon,' he said.

Hariri translated his words into actions when he met earlier this week with the leader of Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, and vowed that he was ready to work with all Lebanese factions to revive the country both politically and economically.