Saad Hariri
From AICbackground
Saad Hariri
Lebanese Parliamentary Leader
"The regime in Syria is trading with the blood of the children of Qana, Gaza and Baghdad."
"We don't want Lebanon to be used as a territory for other conflicts. We need Lebanon to be a free and sovereign country"
"The Israeli aggression may be able to destroy Lebanon, but it cannot touch Lebanese unity, which is what will help to rebuild the country."
"We have to understand that we come out of 30 years of not making decisions by ourselves; of having a country telling us what to do."
"We would like to have peace with Israel. We don't want wars."
"We and the Syrians will be here for 1,000 years so we have to have normal and regular relations with Syria."
Early Years and Education
You were born on April 18, 1970 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but you identify as Lebanese. Also, you are a Sunni Muslim. You studied business administration at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. In 1996, you took over the Saudi-based "Saudi Oger" construction company owned by your father, Rafik Hariri, which is worth $3.15 billion. Your father was assassinated in February 2005, after serving as the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 2004. Following his assassination and the resulting Cedar Revolution, which also focused on the removal of Syrian influence in Lebanese politics, you left your job at Saudi Oger in Saudi Arabia and returned to Lebanon to defend your father’s legacy.
Public Life
Having returned to Lebanon, you quickly ran for the Lebanese parliament in an attempt to continue your father’s political ideals, which included reform and the removal of Syrian influence in Lebanon. Nevertheless, before your return to Lebanon, you never had any experience in politics. You are the leader of the Future Wave political party, a newly formed group originally committed to the expulsion of Syrian troops from Lebanon, but now committed to a general rebuilding of Lebanese society after civil war and the July 2006 Israeli invasion. Your party swept the May 2005 parliamentary elections, and in alliance with several small Christian groups, and the Progressive Socialist Party of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, you have formed a governmental majority known as the "March 14 Coalition," where you are leader of the Parliamentary Majority and your father's close friend, Fouad Siniora, is Prime Minister. You are based and draw your support mainly in Northern Lebanon among Lebanon's Sunni community, though your strong pro-business stance makes you popular amongst entrepeneurs of all stripes. Even though you are the majority leader of government, you remain by temperament an oppositional figure: you were swept to power on an anti-Syrian, anti-corruption agenda, and maintain that much of the Lebanese political system is still staffed by supporters of Syria, especially President Emile Lahoud. Your close ally, Fouad Siniora, has been less willing to engage in figure pointing, but perhaps owing to your political inexperience, you are more willing to openly identify your political enemies. Although this has made you popular with your supporters, it has likewise galvanized your enemies, including Lahoud, the Maronite Michel Aoun and Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah. While Lebanon's more experienced political actors view your vocal opinions as a sign of weakness, with your youth and energy you have one trump card: you are favored by the United States. Most of Lebanon's other political elites have alienated Washington at one point or another, including Walid Jumblatt and more recently Fouad Siniora, but with your technocratic development schemes and simple anti-Syrian policies you have become a darling of the Bush administration.
Your government has been sorely tried in 2006. The July 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel devastated much of your country, and saw you actually support Hezbollah as a defender of Lebanon against foreign aggression. Fortunately for you, the damage inflicted by this war has actually strengthened you personally, since your background in construction has made you a key voice in the rebuilding process (much like your father during the 1990s after the civil war). After this conflict, Hezbollah and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, emerged as strong contenders for power on the national level. They have called for a new government of national unity, and have accused your government of actually siding with the Israelis during the war. Their challenges have been joined by the legendary Maronite general Michel Aoun, who returned from exile in 2005 after 15 years spent resisting the Syrian occupation from abroad. As an exiled patriot, his voice carries special weight, and he has accused you, Jumblatt and Siniora of being collaborators with the Syrian occupation. While you yourself spent most of the Syrian period working in Saudi Arabia, it is undeniable that much of your father's fortune (which you inherited) was acquired during the occupation, in cooperation with local authorities. In December 2006 all Shiite ministers left Siniora's government on Nasrallah's orders, and in alliance with Michel Aoun they have since taken to the streets in protest. So far their ire has been directed squarely at Siniora and his cabinet, not your parliamentary majority, but as a key member of the ruling coalition you have stood firmly behind the Prime Minister, and resist any attempt to overthrown the government by illegal means. You are also less nuanced than your coalition partners in dealing with Hezbollah; while Siniora and Jumblatt would like to see the militia intergrated into the Lebanese army, you wouldn't mind seeing them disarmed outright, even if that means foreign intervention in Lebanese affairs.
Domestic Issues of Concern
(political considerations, who are your allies/opponents, etc.)
You ran for the Lebanese parliament on an anti-corruption, pro-reform platform. You vowed to pursue your father's economic plan with help from Europe, the United States, and the Gulf States. You declared that should you win the election your "first mandate is to have new election law." Another intention of yours is to carry out the purge of any remaining Syrian influences on Lebanese security forces. Your most obvious opponent is the Lebanese president, Emile Lahoud, because he protected and supported Syrian occupation. You feel he caused great harm to your country and you would like to see him removed from office. Much like your father, you have continued to maintain dialogue with France and the United States. You know that western investment will be essential in the effort to rebuild your country, and that means staying friendly with the US and the members of the EU. You are a technocrat with a background in telecommunications, and you would like to see Lebanon modernize into a highly-developed technological oasis in the Middle East, with an economy centered on information technology, banking and tourism.
Pursuant to your campaign promises, you want to see your father's killer brought to justice, and you have been very direct in saying that this killer is Bashar al-Asad of Syria. While current events with Hezbollah have overtaken this policy, given the opportunity you will try to reinvigorate the international process which you hope will incriminate the Syrians and bring to bear some punishment on the Damascus regime for its 29 year occupation of your country.
With the recent campaign, your victory against the March 8th coalition came as a surprise to many people. This was the first time that a vote occurred in your country where the presence of Syria was non-existent. Your victory showed the rest of the world, that Hezbollah's use of arms on the people of Lebanon, as well as the war with Israel that resulted in the deaths of many citizens, would not be tolerated. However, the March 8 bloc, led by Hezbollah, is attempting to attain a blocking veto in the government. This is something that you and your party have repeatedly disagreed with, and the tension between the two parties is something that has caused some distress domestically. However, you must make sure to manage your relationship with Hezbollah, and not let it interfere with creating a national consensus government.
Policies and Beliefs Pertaining to the Middle East
You are in favor of the Mideast peace process and would like to see progress towards King Abdullah's 2002 Arab initiative. Even though you encourage negotiations to disarm Hezbollah, you maintain that Hezbollah is a "resistance" group to Israeli occupation. While you would like peace with Israel, you insist that they withdraw from Shebaa Farms, an area of contested ownership where Syria, Lebanon, and Israel meet. Even though you are anti-Syrian and believe Syrians assassinated your father, you acknowledge that you cannot ignore them. You have said of Syria, "We will respect their sovereignty, and we hope that they will respect ours."
Role-Playing Notes
(what's important to you, what kind of person are you, how much independence do you have, etc)
You are part of the opposition party in the Lebanese Parliament. Although a Lebanese national, you worked in Saudi Arabia for much of your adult life and attended college in the United States of America. Most of your political views parallel those of your fathers. In fact, you believe that your goal is to achieve what your father could not. Although strongly supported by United States’ policy making, you still condemn the aggressions of Israel and want them to leave the territories they occupy in Lebanon. Your position as majority leader in the Parliament gives you a lot of power, but the Hezbollah party and President Emile Lahoud support Syria, which directly conflicts with your anti-Syrian position. You have been described as "an impressive and smart figure." Despite your intelligence, you are now a small fish in a very large ocean: Lebanese politics have produced some of the world's most dangerous and wily figures, men like Walid Jumblatt and Hassan Nasrallah. While you have inherited a great name (and fortune) these will not be enough to secure your authority, or ensure that others treat you with respect. To truly establish yourself as a figure in Lebanese politics you must get beyond your father's legacy and become your own person, a job you might succeed at if you can truly keep Lebanon sovereign and use your international connections to modernize it along western lines. Never forget, however, that your father was killed for working towards similar goals, and he was much more experienced than you are.
Annotated List of References:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/20/AR2005062000202.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saad_Hariri
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebaa_Farms
http://www.answers.com/topic/saad-hariri
http://www.cfr.org/publication/11135/lebanons_weak_government.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5259842.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4110398.stm
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525896579&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
