09 November 2006

EXCERPT

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