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Timing of Hariri’s Killing Raises Many Questions
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The
body of Hariri lies on the ground. (Reuters)
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By
Abdel Raheem Ali, IOL Staff
CAIRO,
February 14 (IslamOnline.net) – The assassination of former Lebanese
premier Rafiq Hariri on Monday, February 14, raised many question
marks over the timing and the end behind the grisly crime.
Pundits
spoke of three possible scenarios, the first being a strong message to
the Lebanese opposition supporting UN Security Council resolution 1559
on the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
The
second points the finger at Israel and other foreign powers backing
the UN resolution with the aim of fanning the differences between pro-
and-anti-Syria lobbies to force Damascus to pull out troops from
Lebanon.
The
third scenario, expert believe, is to stir a wave of public panic to
press for the disarming of resistance factions, chiefly Hizbullah.
Hariri
died in a deadly blast that targeted
his convoy in
the Lebanese capital Beirut.
The
shattering explosion also claimed the lives of at least eight others,
including several bodyguards of the 60-year-old former premier.
The
blast struck just as Hariri’s motorcade was passing in a western
Beirut area near St George Hotel.
Not
in Syria’s Favor
Hussein
Al-Oweidat, a Syrian analyst, said Damascus will take the brunt of
Hariri’s killing contrary to first-glance reckoning.
“Syria
has been taking pains to ease long-festering tensions with some
Lebanese powers,” he told IslamOnline.net over the phone.
Oweidat
highlighted signs of rapprochement between Damascus and opponents to
its presence in Lebanon, citing a fruitful round of talks in January.
“Syrian
officials managed to convince leading opposition leaders like Maronite
Patriarch Nasrullah Sfeir and former president Amin Al-Jamil (who met
with the Syrian foreign minister two weeks ago) of the importance of
resolving the crisis peacefully,” he said.
“They
agreed on Taif Agreement as the yardstick of ending the current
crisis,” added the expert.
Signed
on October 22, 1989, in Saudi Arabia, the Taif Agreement ended a
bloody 15-year civil war in Lebanon and established cordial relations
between Lebanon and Syria.
Immediately
after Hariri’s assassination, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad
issued a statement condemning the “terrible criminal act”.
Israeli
Hands
Oweidat
said the assassination is aimed at scuppering earnest efforts to
revive the Syrian-Israeli peace process following a series of false
starts over the past 30 years.
Well-placed
Egyptian sources told IOL last week that Egypt was preparing to bring
the Syrians and the Israelis together in a summit similar to that it
hosed on February 8 in Sharm El-Sheikh between the Palestinians and
Israelis.
“The
perpetrators want to re-ignite a civil war in Lebanon and shift the
attention from the Israeli-Syrian peace track,” said the expert.
Abu
Emad Al-Refaai, the representative of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad
group in Lebanon, also pointed the fingers at Israel.
“This
crime plays well into the hands of Israel,” he told IOL over the
phone.
“Israel,”
he continued, “wants to mix the cards and perplex the Lebanese
resistance, on the one hand, and Syria, on the other.”
He
did not expect the killing of Hariri to drag the country into the
cauldron of a deadly civil war.
“We
can talk about squabbles and minor clashes but it will not lead to a
civil war.”
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