A DAMASCUS MEETING. A POLITICAL GAMBIT. A PAYOFF. A FINAL PHONE CALL
By Nicholas Blanford
The Daily Star, Lebanon
Nov 9 2006
Among other things, ‘Killing Mr. Lebanon’ captures the last week in
the life of Rafik Hariri
Editor’s note: The following edited extract from Nicholas Blanford’s
newly published book "Killing Mr. Lebanon: The Assassination of Rafik
Hariri and its Impact on the Middle East" recounts the week up to
February 13, 2005, the eve of the former prime minister’s death.
Hariri, who spoke on the phone with Abdel-Halim Khaddam on a daily
basis, met his old Syrian ally for the last time in early February.
Khaddam was becoming convinced that his friend was going to be murdered
and advised him "to get on a plane and leave."
"I repeatedly warned him and told him to resign and leave the country
because I knew that the ruler of Syria does not have a logical and
balanced mind. He could take any action," Khaddam recalls. "But Hariri
replied, how could he leave with the elections coming up?"
On February 8, Terje Roed Larsen, the UN envoy, arrived in Beirut
to negotiate a mechanism that would allow Resolution 1559 to be
implemented with the approval of all sides. In his meetings with the
Lebanese leadership, he suggested linking 1559 with Taif as a means
of encouraging Syria to begin the process of redeploying troops to
the Bekaa.
In Damascus, Larsen told Bashar that the international community
would welcome some significant moves by the Syrian president in
Lebanon. Those moves could be symbolic, Larsen added carefully. It was
obvious that Damascus could not remove the entire army and military
intelligence service overnight. However, he continued, if the president
was to withdraw one soldier in particular, then Larsen would reflect
that in his upcoming report on the implementation of Resolution 1559.
"What one soldier would that be?" Bashar asked.
"Your man in Anjar," Larsen replied, referring to Rustom Ghazaleh.
Bashar looked startled and then after a moment replied to the effect
that it would be easier to remove the entire Syrian Army from Lebanon
than oust Ghazaleh from Anjar.
Sharaa was present at the meeting, along with some of Larsen’s UN
aides. Larsen asked to speak to Bashar alone for a few minutes and
the other attendees left the room. In an awkward postscript to the
meeting, Larsen’s aides discovered to their consternation that sitting
in the office of the director-general of the presidential palace,
arms crossed and staring pensively at the floor, was none other than
Rustom Ghazaleh. Clearly he was waiting to be briefed on Larsen’s
discussion with Bashar where he would undoubtedly be told of the UN
envoy’s suggestion that he be removed.
In his one-to-one discussion with Bashar, Larsen discussed the tensions
between Lebanon and Syria, particularly the deteriorating relationship
between Hariri and the Syrian leadership which the UN envoy believed
"might lead to a dangerous situation."
"I met a number of officials on both sides and my impression was,
without any qualification or nuance, that there was a rapidly
deteriorating situation between the leadership of the two countries
that caused [me] concern," Larsen says. "I urged both parties
immediately to start a dialogue; otherwise it would continue to
deteriorate rapidly further. We [Larsen and Bashar] had a tentative
discussion about setting up a meeting between a representative of
[Bashar] and Hariri for the following week, the same week that
Hariri died."
Larsen returned to Beirut that evening and had dinner at Koreitem
to update Hariri on his talks with Bashar and the possibility of
organizing a reconciliation meeting.
That same day, the Christian opposition Qornet Shehwan gathering
discussed an offer from Marwan Hamade to meet Hariri at Koreitem
to form a joint position on the electoral law. Although Hariri had
decided to align himself fully with the established Christian-Druze
opposition, he had yet to go public. The Qornet Shehwan decided that
they would meet Hariri but not at Koreitem. Instead they settled
on the more neutral setting of Parliament where the MPs in Qornet
Shehwan would meet Hariri on Monday morning.
The parliamentary elections also formed part of the discussion between
Hariri and Nasrallah the next day, Friday, February 11, at what would
be their last encounter together. Hariri was still refusing to include
any pro-Syrians on his electoral list, but Nasrallah persuaded him
to accept two candidates, an Armenian and a member of Hizbullah.
"How can I not have a member of the resistance on my Beirut list?"
Hariri said.
A few weeks earlier, Hariri had used his influence with Jacques Chirac
to persuade France not to support adding Hizbullah to the European
Union’s list of terrorist organizations which EU foreign ministers
were planning to discuss in Brussels on February 16.
Nasrallah was appreciative of Hariri’s intervention and in return
agreed to try to broker a secret meeting in Damascus between Hariri
and Bashar at which all points of contention would be discussed.
Even though he was on the verge of publicly announcing his
affiliation with the opposition, Hariri had not abandoned the
possibility of reconciling with the Syrian leadership, according to
his colleagues. After all, if his electoral game plan bore fruit,
he would return as prime minister of Lebanon after the May elections
and he would once more have to deal with the Syrians. Nasrallah told
Hariri that a senior Hizbullah official would be in Damascus on Monday,
February 14, to arrange the reconciliation with Bashar.
The state’s pressure on Hariri reached new heights on Saturday,
February 12, when four workers from one of his charities, the Beirut
Society for Social Development, were arrested by police on charges
of providing bribes to families in the form of bottles of olive oil
in advance of the parliamentary election. On hearing the news of the
arrests, Hariri intervened personally to have the workers released,
describing the incident as "foolishness."
Hariri later that day told Adnan Baba, his personal secretary, "If they
[the Syrians] kill me, they will be signing their own death warrant."
Handling the olive oil arrests took up much of Hariri’s time over the
weekend, although he did receive an unexpected phone call on Sunday
morning. It was Rustom Ghazaleh. Sounding agitated, the Syrian general
bluntly demanded a large sum of money to be delivered in cash to his
headquarters in Anjar, according to a Hariri aide.
It was not the first time that Ghazaleh had squeezed money from
Hariri. Even though Hariri had decided to no longer deal with the
Syrian mukhabarat, he gave in to Ghazaleh’s demand, saying that the
general would have to wait until the next day because the banks were
closed on Sundays.
But Ghazaleh insisted on the money being delivered the same day.
Hariri made the appropriate arrangements and the money was delivered
to Anjar by Abu Tarek, the head of Hariri’s security detail.
According to Saad Hariri, Abu Tarek received a tongue-lashing from
Ghazaleh, who used "every single curse in the Arabic dictionary"
against his boss. Abu Tarek was so shaken by the tirade that he
switched off his phone and drove to his home where he stayed for
three hours to calm himself down.
As afternoon turned into evening on Sunday, February 13, Hariri was
visited by allies and friends, including Jumblatt and Ghazi Aridi,
who remained with Hariri until late in the evening.
It was nearly midnight by the time Hariri took the lift to his private
quarters on the seventh floor. His wife, Nazek, was in Paris, although
he was planning to fly to France on the Friday to celebrate the
birthday of his only daughter, Hind, who was staying with her mother.
As he undressed for bed, he telephoned his son Saad in Saudi Arabia
for his customary late-night chat. He asked after Lara, Saad’s wife,
and his grandson Hussam, of whom he was especially fond. Saad said
that he was flying to Abu Dhabi in the morning. The conversation was
limited to general personal matters. Although Saad was curious to
hear the latest political developments, he knew better than to ask
given that the phone lines were being monitored. After a few minutes,
Hariri wound up the call with his customary adieu to his son. "I love
you," he said, and hung up the phone.
Nicholas Blanford will be signing copies of "Killing Mr. Lebanon:
The Assassination of Rafik Hariri and its Impact on the Middle
East" tonight from 6-8 p.m. at Librairie Antoine in the ABC mall
in Achrafieh.