By Joseph A. Kechichian, Gulf news Senior Writer

Beirut: “There are no channels of communication or any exchange of
words or greetings,” declared former commander of the Internal Security
Forces (ISF) Ashraf Rifi to the MTV television network as he confirmed
that ties with Future Movement leader, the former Prime Minister Sa‘ad
Hariri, had been “totally severed”.

“Hariri is finished,” said
Rifi in what was an unprecedented political bombshell, adding that
Lebanese Sunnis were “awaiting for a new Hariri”. These sharp
words from Rifi, who joined the March 14 coalition after he retired from
the powerful ISF and even accepted one of the most critical government
portfolios in the Tammam Salam Cabinet, shook the political
establishment.

Although accustomed to polarisation, the winner of
the early June 2016 Tripoli municipality elections — when he formed an
alternative list that defeated Lebanon’s three Sunni billionaires
(Hariri, Mohammad Safadi and Najib Mikati) — helped dejected Sunnis open
a new page in politics, and permitted him to claim that Hariri had lost
his influence in the community.

Rifi resigned from the government
on February 21 to protest what he determined was the cabinet’s
procrastination in referring the case of former Minister of Information
Michel Samaha to the Judicial Council for a retrial. Few doubted his
credentials or charisma — a fast speaker that compared favourably with
Hariri’s more measured prose — as Rifi took to the airwaves and
delivered a series of calculated attacks on senior officials. He said he
was a fighter, and that he was ready to battle in order to protect both
his principles and the rights of the Lebanese, especially those
routinely neglected by the establishment. That message resonated loud
and clear in the municipal elections, which Rifi swept to everyone’s
surprise.

Buoyed by that victory, an emboldened Rifi took on Hariri, although
he reiterated that he maintained ties with Future parliamentary bloc
leader, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, and other officials,
including deputy Bahia Hariri, Saad’s aunt, and Interior Minister Nouhad
Al Mashnouq.

On Tuesday, Rifi said he will no longer visit Bayt
Al Wasat [Centre House], which is Hariri’s headquarters, adding that he
was a Quraytam man not a Bayt Al Wasat Haririan, referring to the
headquarters of the slain Prime Minister Rafik Hariri [Quraytam].

Interestingly,
Rifi told MTV that senior officials in Saudi Arabia had asked him to
“visit Bayt Al Wasat and rescind his resignation from the government”,
and that he demurred as a matter of principle. Nevertheless, he
emphasised that his relations with high-ranking Saudi officials was
characterised by “respect”, and that Riyadh had not tried to “restrict”
his political activities.

It was a foregone conclusion,
nevertheless, that Rifi emerged as a valuable alternative to Saad
Hariri, whose Saudi Oger company ran into serious financial trouble.
What remained unclear was Riyadh’s intentions to cut traditional ties
with Hariri and replace him with a rising star like Rifi.

On
Tuesday, Rifi boasted about his growing influence in the Sunni
community. “I am strong in Tripoli and my influence is spreading to
Akkar, in which I will have candidates [in the scheduled Spring 2017
parliamentary elections]. I also have a presence in Western and Central
Bekaa and I’m rivalling Hariri in Beirut’s third electoral district”.

Rifi ended his interview with two intriguing statements.

He
commented on the Interior Minister’s decision to ask the government to
ban the Arab Democratic Party and the Islamic Unification Movement
faction, both of which were indicted by Judge Alaa Al Khatib for crimes
committed on August 23, 2013, when the Al Taqwa and Al Salam mosques in
Tripoli were bombed. Rifi noted that “Prime Minister Tammam Salam will
not dare to put the disbanding of the two groups on the cabinet’s
agenda”, but added: “If he refrains from doing so, I will not hesitate
to attack him”.

Second, Rifi hailed the Lebanese Forces (LF) and
its leader Samir Geagea, describing the LF chief as “our first ally”.
While this was not the first time Rifi praised Geagea — in June 2016, he
went so far as to plead for a restoration of the Hariri-Geagea
alliance, describing the LF as a “permanent strategic ally in the
Christian arena alongside other allies” — this was bound to further
upset Hariri. Rifi and Hariri disagreed on the March 14 contender for
the presidency, Sulaiman Franjieh, whom Rifi dismissed as a problematic
candidate because of established ties with Syria.