Word: beirutization
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Those words would haunt Hariri for the rest of his life. Seven weeks after his meeting in Damascus, he resigned. Almost four months after that, he was dead, assassinated on Valentine's Day in rebuilt downtown Beirut, the jewel of his political achievements, as he prepared to launch a bid to reclaim power and rid Lebanon of Syrian influence. In death, Hariri managed to obtain the prize he so desperately sought in the final months of his life. After his assassination a million Lebanese poured into the streets, galvanizing international opinion against Damascus and forcing the withdrawal of Syrian troops...
...while Hariri is a martyr who transcends Lebanon's sectarian divides-his grave in downtown Beirut has become the city's most popular tourist attraction-the circumstances surrounding his assassination are still cloaked in mystery. The bombing site remains cordoned off by police tape, the street littered with the gnarled remains of cars burned by the blast. A U.N. fact-finding mission concluded in March that the Syrian regime bore "primary responsibility" for the political circumstances leading up to Hariri's assassination, though Damascus has denied any involvement. A U.N. team arrived in Lebanon...
Hariri returned to Lebanon shaken. A close friend says that when he visited Hariri at his weekend home outside Beirut, the Prime Minister recounted his humiliation. He sobbed on his friend's shoulder when they touched on the topic a few days later. "To them, we are all ants," Hariri told an aide. But after consulting with Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, Hariri decided to back Syria's plan to extend Lahoud's term. On Sept. 3, the Lebanese parliament voted 96-29 to further Lahoud's term by three years...
...Resolution 1559's implementation, met Assad in Damascus. According to people familiar with the conversation, Assad was preoccupied with Hariri's brazenness. "There is no opposition," Assad told Roed-Larsen, according to a Hariri aide. "There is only Rafiq Hariri." The next day, Roed-Larsen dined with Hariri in Beirut. Hariri informed Fleihan that Roed-Larsen had warned Hariri that his life might be in danger. Roed-Larsen encouraged Hariri to adopt a less confrontational approach. "You have to be very, very careful," he said...
...Appreciation In a middle east where doors seem to open only to friends and friends of friends, one of TIME magazine's best friends was Abu Said Aburish, who died May 2 at age 92. He ran TIME's operations in Beirut from 1952 to 1989, and he provided the magazine's correspondents with entry to halls of power?and sources of sensitive information?far beyond Lebanon. At the height of his career, he held court at the bar of the glamorous Hotel St. Georges in Beirut, from which he followed the activities of diplomats, adventurers and spies even...