Lebanon marks 20 years since Rafic Hariri killed as power balance shifts

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Updated 14 February 2025
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Lebanon marks 20 years since Rafic Hariri killed as power balance shifts

Lebanon marks 20 years since Rafic Hariri killed as power balance shifts
  • A UN-backed court sentenced two Hezbollah members in absentia to life imprisonment for the massive suicide bombing that killed him and 21 others

BEIRUT: Lebanon on Friday marked 20 years since former prime minister Rafic Hariri’s assassination, with seismic political changes underway that have weakened Hezbollah and its backers and could herald a comeback for Hariri’s son Saad.
Rafic Hariri, a towering political figure who oversaw Lebanon’s reconstruction era after the 1975-1990 civil war, had recently resigned as premier when he was killed on February 14, 2005.
In 2022, a UN-backed court sentenced two Hezbollah members in absentia to life imprisonment for the massive suicide bombing that killed him and 21 others, though the group has refused to hand them over.
His son Saad, who served three times as prime minister, is based in the United Arab Emirates but has again returned for the annual commemorations.
This time, he is back in a changed Lebanon.
The commemoration comes days before the deadline for implementing a Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire, which ended more than a year of hostilities that weakened the group.
Concerns have mounted for the fragile truce after Beirut rejected Israel’s demand to remain in five southern locations after the February 18 deadline.
But Hezbollah still carries weight, with supporters Thursday blocking the airport road after two Iranian planes were barred from landing.
A day earlier, Israel’s army had accused Iran of sending funds to arm the group through the Beirut airport.
On Friday morning, a few thousand Hariri supporters carrying Lebanese flags gathered near his father’s burial site in downtown Beirut.
“For the first time in 20 years, our joy is double: first because the Syrian regime fell... and second because Sheikh Saad is among us,” homemaker Diana Al-Masri, 52, told AFP.
A source close to Hariri said he was due to give a speech addressing developments “in Lebanon and the region,” though he may not resume political activities right away.
“His supporters are calling on him to return to political life,” said the source, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Until early 2022, Hariri was the main Sunni Muslim leader in a country where political power is shared along sectarian lines.
Once enjoying strong support from Saudi Arabia, Hariri’s relationship with the regional heavyweight deteriorated because of his conciliatory attitude toward Hezbollah.
In 2017, Hariri resigned as premier in a shock address from Riyadh, citing Iran’s “grip” on Lebanon through Hezbollah and prompting accusations he was being held against his will.
French President Emmanuel Macron had to intervene to secure his return to Lebanon, where Hariri rescinded his resignation.
He resigned again as prime minister after nationwide protests in 2019 demanding the wholesale overhaul of Lebanon’s political class.
In a tearful 2022 announcement, he said he had suspended his political activities and those of his party, citing “Iranian influence” among other reasons.
The source told AFP that all these reasons had now “vanished.”
For decades, Hezbollah was Lebanon’s dominant political force, but its arsenal and leadership were decimated during its war with Israel, while Syrian ally Bashar Assad’s ouster cut the group’s vital arms supply lines.
’New chance’
In January, former army chief Joseph Aoun was elected president after a more than two-year vacuum.
He was widely seen as the United States and Saudi Arabia’s preferred choice.
This month, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, who had been presiding judge at the International Criminal Court, formed a government. On Friday, Salam visited Rafic Hariri’s tomb to pay his respects.
“Lebanon has been given a new chance as Iranian influence is declining and the international community has returned,” the source said.
Riyadh has recently retaken an interest in Lebanese politics after distancing itself for years over Hezbollah’s influence.
“Saudi Arabia seeks a strong, organized Sunni leadership,” said Imad Salamey, head of the International and Political Studies Department at the Lebanese American University.
“If (Saad) Hariri can present himself as that figure, his return would serve both his interests and those of the kingdom.”
His father’s assassination anniversary “will serve as an opportunity to assess his ability to mobilize support and reassert his leadership within the Sunni community,” Salamey added.
Hariri was thrust into the political limelight following his father’s murder, widely attributed to Damascus and Hezbollah at the time, which triggered massive protests that drove Syrian troops out of Lebanon after 29 years of occupation.
Rafic Hariri was a billionaire and the architect of Lebanon’s reconstruction era after the 1975-1990 civil war.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, is desperate to prove it has not lost ground to political rivals.
After the airport protests, authorities said they were working to bring back Lebanese passengers stranded in Iran using two Middle East Airlines planes.
But on Friday a source from the national carrier told AFP that Tehran had denied them permission to land in a tit-for-tat move.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of using Lebanon’s only airport to transfer weapons from Iran, claims the group and Lebanese officials have denied, with the army reinforcing security measures there in past months.


Pope Francis’s popemobile set to become health clinic for Gaza children

Pope Francis’s popemobile set to become health clinic for Gaza children
Updated 8 sec ago
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Pope Francis’s popemobile set to become health clinic for Gaza children

Pope Francis’s popemobile set to become health clinic for Gaza children
VATICAN CITY: One of Pope Francis’s popemobiles is being transformed into a mobile health clinic for children in the Gaza Strip, fulfilling one of his final wishes, the Vatican’s official media outlet said on Sunday.
The vehicle, used by the late pontiff during his 2014 visit to the Holy Land, is being outfitted with diagnostic and emergency medical equipment to help young patients in the Palestinian enclave, where health services have been devastated by the Israeli invasion.
Pope Francis, who died last month, entrusted the initiative to the Catholic aid organization Caritas Jerusalem in the months before his death, Vatican News said.
“This is a concrete, life-saving intervention at a time when the health system in Gaza has almost completely collapsed,” Peter Brune, Secretary General of Caritas Sweden, which is supporting the project, told Vatican News.
The mobile unit will be equipped with rapid infection tests, vaccines, diagnostic tools, and suture kits, and staffed by medical personnel. Caritas plans to deploy the clinic to communities without access to functioning health care facilities once humanitarian access to Gaza is feasible.
“It’s not just a vehicle,” Brune added. “It’s a message that the world has not forgotten about the children in Gaza.”
Gaza has a tiny Christian community and the Vatican has said Francis used to call the Holy Family Church in Gaza on an almost daily basis for much of the war, which started in October 2023 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel.
Francis had a number of popemobiles, with the one used in the 2014 visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories staying in the region following his return to the Vatican.
A conclave to elect a new pope starts on May 7.

Lebanon holds first local elections in almost 10 years

Lebanon holds first local elections in almost 10 years
Updated 23 min 11 sec ago
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Lebanon holds first local elections in almost 10 years

Lebanon holds first local elections in almost 10 years
  • President Aoun pins national hopes on municipal revival
  • PM Salam appeals for a big turnout, with security forces placed on full alert

BEIRUT: The first municipal elections in Lebanon began on Sunday after a more than nine-year hiatus.

Voting is taking place by region, with the first round in the Mount Lebanon districts, including Beirut’s southern suburbs.

According to the Interior Ministry, 9,321 candidates, including 1,179 women, are running in Mount Lebanon, vying for seats on 333 municipal councils.

Voter turnout exceeded 35 percent less than three hours before the polls closed at 7 p.m. local time.

President Joseph Aoun highlighted the vote’s significance in restoring confidence among the Lebanese people and international community, demonstrating that Lebanon is rebuilding its institutions and is on the right path.

The polls are the first of his presidential term and are seen as an indicator of voting trends ahead of parliamentary elections in May 2026.

Parts of northern Lebanon will vote next Sunday, May 11, while Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley are scheduled to go to the polls on May 18. Voters in the southern regions, severely damaged following clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, will cast their ballots on May 24. 

Lebanon’s presidential vacuum and security developments since October 2023 have affected the civic election process for almost a decade. Authorities last conducted a local ballot in 2016.

Polling stations opened in Mount Lebanon, the first governorate to begin the elections, under the personal supervision of Aoun.

After two visits to the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior in the morning, Aoun said he had “full confidence in the success of this constitutional entitlement.”

He said: “What we are witnessing today in Mount Lebanon will motivate the other governorates. 

“The goal is to revive municipalities as a prelude to reviving the entire nation.”

Aoun also urged voters not to let sectarian, “partisan or financial factors” impact their vote.

On the eve of the elections, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam took to social media to send a message to voters urging them to vote in large numbers.

He described the election as a crucial step toward executing the expanded decentralization mandated by the Taif Agreement, which faced delays for over 35 years and was vital for the growth of municipalities.

Sunday’s elections varied in intensity by district, especially in areas with party and family rivalries. Hezbollah, the Free Patriotic Movement, and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party aimed to retain control of municipalities against challenges from the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party, and civil society activists. 

Supporters from various parties and political factions hurried to include their candidates on most competing lists. This led voters, like one from the Harb family in Beirut’s southern suburb, to suggest “these elections are a crucial political battle, not a competition focused on development.”

Many dynamics have changed since 2016 regarding political and party balances and the map of alliances in Lebanon.

The elections took place in the districts of Metn, Keserwan, Jbeil, Chouf, Aley, and Baabda, which include the southern suburb of Beirut, with security provided by the Lebanese Armed Forces and Internal Security Forces. 

Commando regiments and marine commando reserves were placed on full alert.

In recent weeks, Hezbollah has reached out to families in towns within the southern suburbs of Beirut to create lists that would be appointed unanimously and include supporters from those families. It succeeded in some areas and failed in others. 

The southern suburbs of Beirut, along with the southern and Bekaa governorates, will hold elections later and reflect the level of public support for Hezbollah through the lists endorsed by the party.

The towns of Haret Hreik and Ghobeiry engaged in an electoral battle between closed lists of Hezbollah candidates and incomplete lists of families and young activists.

The electoral process in Mount Lebanon experienced some disorder at polling stations.

The central operations room for municipal elections at the Ministry of Interior reported receiving numerous complaints from various regions involving administrative violations, breaches of electoral law, security issues, conflicts among competitors, and instances of electoral bribery.

The Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections reported several violations, including “the failure of voters to use privacy screens and the presence of roaming representatives accompanying voters into polling stations with the intent to influence their electoral decisions.”

There was a noticeable shift in this election toward campaigning through smartphones, which promoted candidates and facilitated communication with voters.

The presence of candidate posters and banners in streets and neighborhoods has decreased, replaced by social media reels, stories, and closed groups.

The municipalities of Burj Al-Barajneh, Tahwitat Al-Ghadir-Laylaki, and Chiyah were contested unopposed.


Syria to import electricity from Turkiye, rehabilitate Kilis-Aleppo natural gas pipeline

Syria to import electricity from Turkiye, rehabilitate Kilis-Aleppo natural gas pipeline
Updated 04 May 2025
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Syria to import electricity from Turkiye, rehabilitate Kilis-Aleppo natural gas pipeline

Syria to import electricity from Turkiye, rehabilitate Kilis-Aleppo natural gas pipeline
  • Energy Minister discussed with the Turkish side the possibility of mining Syria’s earth minerals
  • Government developing new 80-megawatt transmission line between Turkiye’s Reyhanli district and Syria’s Harem region

LONDON: The Syrian Arab Republic will import electricity from Turkiye and rehabilitate a natural gas pipeline connecting two border regions, the country’s energy minister said on Sunday.

Mohammed Al-Bashir stated that Damascus is finalizing an agreement to import electricity from Turkiye via a 400-kilovolt high-voltage transmission line that links the two countries.

Al-Bashir stated that the government is developing another 80-megawatt transmission line between Turkiye’s Reyhanli district and Syria’s Harem region to supply electricity to towns in northern Syria.

“Additionally, we are working to rehabilitate the natural gas pipeline connecting Kilis and Aleppo,” two cities in southern Turkiye and northern Syria, the minister added.

“Once operational, (the pipeline) could supply 6 million cubic meters of gas per day to Syria’s power generation stations, significantly improving our energy situation,” he added in a statement to the SANA news agency.

The minister said he discussed with the Turkish side the possibility of mining Syria’s mineral deposits, such as phosphate and lithium, and the prospect of exploring natural gas in the country’s national waters. He urged Turkish companies to invest in exploring Syria’s oil and natural gas potential, upgrading power lines and plants, and rebuilding refineries and transportation systems.


Israel vows retaliation against Iran, Yemen’s Houthis over airport attack

Israel vows retaliation against Iran, Yemen’s Houthis over airport attack
Updated 04 May 2025
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Israel vows retaliation against Iran, Yemen’s Houthis over airport attack

Israel vows retaliation against Iran, Yemen’s Houthis over airport attack
  • It is the first time a missile has directly struck inside Israel's main airport, according to a military spokesperson
  • Netanyahu said Israel would also respond to Iran at 'a time and place of our choosing'

TEL AVIV: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed a response to Yemen’s Houthis and their Iranian backers after the militant group struck the area of Israel’s main airport, wounding six people and prompting several major airlines to suspend flights.
The strike came hours before Israel’s army confirmed the call-up of “tens of thousands” of reservists to expand the 19-month war in Gaza against Palestinian militants Hamas.
The military confirmed that the attack, which gouged a large crater in the perimeter of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, was launched from Yemen and had struck despite “several attempts... to intercept the missile.”
In a video published on Telegram, Netanyahu said Israel had “acted against” the Iran-backed group in the past and “will act in the future.”
“It will not happen in one bang, but there will be many bangs,” he added, without going into further detail.
Later on X, Netanyahu said Israel would also respond to Iran at “a time and place of our choosing.”
A police video showed officers standing on the edge of a deep hole in the ground with the control tower visible behind them. No damage was reported to airport infrastructure.
The police reported a “missile impact” at Israel’s main international gateway.
An AFP photographer said the missile hit near the parking lots of Terminal 3, the airport’s largest. The crater was just hundreds of meters from the tarmac.
Missile inside the airport
“You can see the area just behind us: a crater was formed here, several dozen meters wide and several dozen meters deep,” central Israel’s police chief, Yair Hezroni, said in the video.
“This is the first time” that a missile has directly struck inside the airport perimeter, an Israeli military spokesperson told AFP.
Earlier, the Houthis, who say they act in support of Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The group said their forces “carried out a military operation targeting Ben Gurion airport” with a “hypersonic ballistic missile.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened a forceful response, saying: “Anyone who hits us, we will hit them seven times stronger.”
Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad later hailed the attack on the airport.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said it had treated at least six people with light to moderate injuries.
An AFP journalist inside the airport at the time of the attack said he heard a “loud bang” at around 9:35 am local time, adding that the “reverberation was very strong.”
“Security staff immediately asked hundreds of passengers to take shelter, some in bunkers,” the AFP journalist said.
“Many passengers are now waiting for their flights to take off, and others are trying to find alternative flights.”
An incoming Air India flight was diverted to Abu Dhabi, an airport official told AFP.
It was one of the airlines to suspend Tel Aviv flights until Tuesday along with Italy’s ITA Airways and Germany’s Lufthansa Group, which includes Austrian, Eurowings and SWISS. Air France announced the cancelation of Sunday flights.
The Houthis, who control swathes of Yemen, have launched missiles and drones targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war.
Israel resumed major operations across Gaza on March 18 amid a deadlock over how to proceed with a two-month ceasefire that had largely stopped the war.


Jordan’s tourism sector surges in first quarter of year with 19% rise in visitors, 8.9% revenue boost

Jordan’s tourism sector surges in first quarter of year with 19% rise in visitors, 8.9% revenue boost
Updated 04 May 2025
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Jordan’s tourism sector surges in first quarter of year with 19% rise in visitors, 8.9% revenue boost

Jordan’s tourism sector surges in first quarter of year with 19% rise in visitors, 8.9% revenue boost
  • The surge was fueled by a 19 percent year-on-year rise in international arrivals
  • Enhanced air connectivity, targeted international marketing campaigns and Continued investment in infrastructure reasons given for rise

AMMAN: Jordan’s tourism sector has kicked off 2025 strongly, registering growth in both visitor numbers and revenue, a Jordan News Agency report said on Sunday.

According to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, tourism revenue reached 1.217 billion dinars ($1.72 billion) in the first quarter of the year, which equated to an 8.9 percent increase compared to the same period in 2024.

The surge was fueled by a 19 percent year-on-year rise in international arrivals, which reached 2.125 million between January and April.

Overnight visitors increased by 15.3 percent to 1.765 million, while the number of same-day visitors soared by 41.6 percent to 360,000 compared to early 2024.

April alone saw international arrivals jump by 36.7 percent to 617,000, suggesting that the strong momentum is likely to carry into the second quarter.

Ministry officials attributed the growth to several strategic initiatives.

Enhanced air connectivity, including new direct flights and expanded budget airline operations, has significantly improved access to Jordan, they said.

Meanwhile, targeted international marketing campaigns have successfully spotlighted the kingdom’s diverse tourism offerings, from heritage sites and desert landscapes to adventure and wellness experiences.

Continued investment in infrastructure has also played a role, they said, which has improved the visitor experience and enhanced the country’s overall competitiveness in the global travel market.

Beyond direct economic impact, tourism’s strong performance is boosting Jordan’s foreign currency reserves and generating employment across the hospitality and service sectors, JNA said.

Looking ahead, the ministry reaffirmed its commitment to a national tourism strategy grounded in sustainable development.

Its goals include increasing tourism’s contribution to GDP, creating long-term job opportunities, and solidifying Jordan’s position as a premier global destination by promoting its rich historical, cultural, and natural assets.