12 February 2016By Abdulrahman Al-Rashed
Eleven years have passed since Rafik Hariri was assassinated by the Assad
regime. His killers have succeeded not only in depriving Lebanon of its former
prime minister and one of its most important leaders, but they have also
succeeded in demolishing his project to build and develop a new Lebanon.
By killing Hariri, Assad and his allies have impeded his plans to build and
construct a better Lebanon. Hariri wanted to attract investors to Lebanon,
transform it into a place where trustworthy international institutions thrive
and where all strata of society is involved in building it rather than
competing over seats in parliament and government.
Hariri even went to his adversary Hezbollah and offered to participate in the
development of areas under his influence and change the situation of the
Lebanese citizen who is forced to emigrate in order to earn a living. He
believed that Hezbollah, the rest of the opposition and their followers would
find benefits for themselves in his plans and would be a positive part of them
instead of being a negative party committed to using weapons to obtain their
share.
He convinced important Lebanese expats and the Saudi, Gulf, Egyptian,
European, American and Russian governments of his plans and flew to Iran
several times to reassure Tehran. He was welcomed by most of these figures,
governments and international funds and features of his plans' success began
to show. This was until Assad killed him despite the fact that he agreed to
step down from his role as prime minister and bowed to pressure by extending
the former president Emile Lahoud's term.
Hariri's killers not only wanted to get rid of him but also get rid of his big
plans so that Lebanon remains a country under their control and that is
preoccupied with marginal differences. Since the day that Hariri and other
patriotic political Lebanese forces were assassinated, reconstruction, dreams,
and hope have stopped. This was the goal and this is the result.
However, the price of the crime is high. The killer, or killers are known;
Assad and his allies who have Syrian blood on their hands today. There is no
longer a need to debate their role in the crime because six years after
killing Hariri and his companions, they have committed a much greater crime
and have killed about half a million Syrians.
Despite Hariri's assassination causing enormous problems for Assad, people
like him do not comprehend the lessons of history and this is proved by the
fact that he chose to perpetrate crimes in Syria whilst the blood of his
victims in Lebanon had not yet dried. Instead of trying to appease his
citizens at the beginning of 2011 and testing different solutions to
accommodate their protests, he was quick to threaten them, kill them and
deliberately commit mass murders.
We do not need to open Assad's brain in order to understand it and he leaves
his mark on every crime. He thought that the best way to stop Hariri's plans
and those of other moderate Lebanese leaders that did not accept his dictation
was to kill all of them.
Despite the Lebanese people remembering the assassination of their visionary,
moderate and patriotic leader every year, they do not realise the importance
of commemorating him by reviving his project to unite all Lebanese people
through positive change as opposed to sectarianism.
Al Rashed is the general manager of Al -Arabiya television. He is also the
former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al- Awsat, and the leading Arabic weekly
magazine, Al Majalla. He is also a senior Columnist in the daily newspapers
of Al Madina and Al Bilad. He is a US post-graduate degree in mass
communications. He has been a guest on many TV current affairs programs. He
is currently based in Dubai.
©
EsinIslam.Com
Add Comments