By Kareem Chehayeb — aljazeera —  Beirut, Lebanon – Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri has announced that he will suspend his involvement in political activities and will not run in upcoming parliamentary elections. The Hariri family has dominated Lebanon’s Sunni political landscape for more than three decades since the end of the country’s civil war in 1990. In Lebanon’s sectarian system, where parliamentary seats are allocated based on a sectarian quota, the vast majority of Sunni lawmakers are part of Hariri’s Future Movement party. “I’m convinced there is no room for any positive opportunities to Lebanon due to the Iranian influence, our indecisiveness with the international community, internal divisions, and sectarian divisions, I’m suspending work in political life and so is the Future Movement. And I’m not running in the elections, nor will the Future Movement,” Hariri said in a televised address on Monday. “We are staying in service of our people and nation, but our decision is to suspend any direct role or responsibility in ruling, representation, or politics in the traditional sense,” he added.

Parliamentary elections are slated for May 15, 2022. Lebanese will head to the polls for the first time since a countrywide popular uprising in late 2019, and the Beirut Port blast in August 2020 that killed more than 200 people and flattened several neighbourhoods in the capital. Lebanon is also reeling from a continuing economic crisis that has slipped more than three-quarters of the population into poverty in a little more than two years. Hariri said on Monday that his goal was to prevent another Lebanese civil war amid growing tensions and to improve the wellbeing of Lebanese, and said compromises he has made with political adversaries to prevent war has weakened his ability to improve the economy. “These agreements came at my expense, and could be the reason of my inability to make life better for the Lebanese. History will be the judge of that,” he said, citing loss of personal wealth, local and regional allies.

‘Fragmented alliances’

Hariri last week held a meeting with his party about his decision to abstain from taking part in the upcoming general elections, but did not issue a statement to the press. His spokesperson that day declined to comment on what went on during the meeting. He was appointed as prime minister-elect in late October 2020 for a third stint as the country’s prime minister. However, he resigned the following July after political deadlock and continuing disputes with President Michel Aoun. Saad Hariri has been the leader of the Sunni-majority Future Movement party for more than 15 years, following the assassination of his father, business magnate and former prime minister Rafic Hariri in February 2005.

Senior Future Movement official and former parliamentarian Mustafa Allouch told Al Jazeera that a significant factor behind Hariri’s decision is Iran-backed Hezbollah’s growing influence and political power in Lebanon, and that Future Movement officials are now divided about whether they should run for parliamentary elections on their own or not. “I will run only if in agreement with him [Hariri] and as part of a movement at a national level opposing Hezbollah,” Allouch said.

In recent years, most of Saad Hariri’s local allies saw him as far too diplomatic with Hezbollah and their allies in government. They did not reciprocate his compromises and only weakened Hariri and the Future Movement’s political prowess over time, experts said. “In many ways, Hariri has kind of lost domestic ground and [is] unable to win the elections in Lebanon to due to his fragmented alliances and weak backing from any domestic group,” Imad Salamey, associate professor of Middle East affairs at the Lebanese American University, told Al Jazeera. “He is running against a very strong Syrian-Iranian alliance in the country and therefore given up.”

Hariri was closely allied with Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia. However, Lebanon’s ties with the kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait have deteriorated in recent months. These GCC states cite Iran-backed Hezbollah’s involvement in regional conflicts, especially in Yemen against a Saudi-led coalition, as a key reason. SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

 

BEIRUT (AP) By BASSEM MROUE and ZEINA KARAM — Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced Monday he was leaving politics for now and would not run in upcoming parliamentary elections. The decision marks the first time in three decades the powerful Sunni family is out of politics, adding uncertainty in a country grappling with a financial meltdown. Hariri’s decision had been anticipated but was still a bombshell for many Lebanese. The family has dominated politics in the small country for decades. His exit leaves the Sunni community with no obvious leader for the time being, amid speculation that the abstention of the moderate Hariri could result in hard-line Sunni politicians playing a bigger role in Lebanese politics. Hariri, a three-time prime minister and current member of parliament, inherited the political leadership from his late father, billionaire businessman Rafik Hariri, who was one of Lebanon’s most powerful and influential politicians after the end of the 1975-90 civil war.

The late Hariri was assassinated in February 2005 in a massive truck bombing in Beirut. Afterward, the family chose Saad Hariri to lead despite the fact that he has an older brother. Hariri, who was traditionally in the camp opposing Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah, has largely co-existed with the group, forming coalition governments that included Hezbollah. That cost him support from Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia, the rival of Iran, over influence and clout in the region. Now, as he exits from political life, Hariri said he is convinced there is “no room for any positive opportunity for Lebanon” in light of Tehran’s growing influence, internal divisions, rising sectarian sentiments and the dysfunction of the state. He also acknowledged in an emotional televised speech that he had failed to prevent Lebanon from falling into the worst economic crisis in its modern history. Hariri added that he did all he can to prevent civil war in Lebanon by compromising, an apparent reference to forming governments that included the powerful Hezbollah group. “Therefore, I declare that I will suspend my work in political life and I call upon my family in the Future Movement to take the same step,” Hariri said, in reference to his political group. He held back tears as he spoke and vowed to continue to help people in need.

He added that he will not run in parliamentary elections scheduled for May, neither will members of his Future Movement. Hariri has been the most powerful Sunni Muslim politician in Lebanon since 2005. He took the post of prime minister three times until he was forced to resign in October 2019 following mass protests against the country’s ruling class after the government imposed a $6 monthly fee for using WhatsApp voice calls. He was appointed to the position a fourth time, but was unable to form a government. “Despite his political woes, Saad Hariri remains the primary Sunni leader in Lebanon,” Randa Slim, a political analyst with the Washington-based Middle East Institute said in a Twitter post. “His political exit will create a vacuum,” she said, adding that the scramble for the Sunni community leadership mantle will now intensify. Hariri, who is mired in financial troubles, has for years played a balancing act in Lebanon’s delicate, sectarian-based political system. He often found himself caught between the region’s two feuding powers — the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran.

In 2017 Hariri was cast onto an unknown path when he was forced to announce his resignation in a televised statement during a visit to Saudi Arabia, citing Hezbollah’s domination of Lebanon. The dramatic move backfired: Hariri returned home and restored his alliance with Hezbollah, losing Saudi backing. Saudi Arabia, once his main backer and the country where the Hariri family made much of its fortune, distanced itself from the 51-year-old politician. Relations with Hezbollah worsened in 2020 when a U.N.-backed tribunal sentenced a member of the Hezbollah militant group to life imprisonment for his involvement in Rafik Hariri’s assassination. Hezbollah denies the charges.

Hariri’s decision came despite the fact that several prominent politicians, including Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Druze leader Walid Joumblatt, tried to convince him to change his mind. It was not immediately clear what Hariri, whose family currently resides in Paris, would do away from politics. After Hariri’s speech, some of his supporters blocked roads with burning tires to express their anger with his decision.

Hariri was a young political novice when he was thrust into the spotlight following the assassination of his father and had to learn fast. But he lacked his father’s political savviness and clout and often fumbled his way through Lebanon’s complex and sectarian-based politics. His business also suffered and in 2019 he had to close a TV network and newspaper owned by his family following a years-long financial struggle.