Word: hariri
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...then Hariri's enemies went too far. On an October trip to France to meet with French President Jacques Chirac, Hariri received word of an assassination attempt on Marwan Hamade, a member of parliament who had voted against Lahoud. Hariri saw the attempted hit as a warning. Nineteen days later, he quit as Prime Minister, writing Lahoud, "I entrust revered Lebanon and its good people to God Almighty...
...Hariri quickly began plotting a comeback, aiming to win a landslide victory for his Future Movement in Lebanon's 2005 parliamentary elections. "He concluded that he could not achieve anything with Bashar," Hamade, who is recovering from eight operations after surviving the attempt on his life, told TIME. Hariri worked secretly behind the scenes to forge a powerful alliance opposed to Lahoud and the Syrians. The so-called Bristol Gathering brought together Christian, Druze and Sunni leaders. "He was the pillar of the opposition," says Jumblatt. On Jan. 29, Hariri met with his two main political allies, Basil Fleihan...
...Hariri's swelling defiance made him a target. He avoided the telephone, holding important conversations in secure sites like his garden or the bathroom. "He knew that there was a price in confronting Syria, but he was willing to pay it," says a former Hariri adviser. Hariri jokingly asked Jumblatt, "Who will be assassinated first, you or me?" Still, he shrugged off warnings that he might be killed, claiming to have U.S., French and Saudi assurances for his safety. On Feb. 10, Terje Roed-Larsen, the U.N. envoy overseeing Resolution 1559's implementation, met Assad in Damascus. According to people...
...Hariri left parliament at about 12:30 p.m. With Fleihan and Khoury, he walked across the street to the Cafe de l'Etoile. "He was confident about his decision to break with the Syrians," recalls a diplomat who chatted with him. "He said, 'I'm sick and tired of the sons of bitches.'" Dr. Khoury was beeped to perform an emergency operation at American University Hospital. Hariri got behind the wheel of his armor-plated Mercedes Benz, with Fleihan in the passenger seat, and drove toward his West Beirut mansion in a six-vehicle convoy. As they passed the seafront...
...attackers hoped to silence the anti-Syrian front that Hariri had built, they were disappointed just seven days later, when 150,000 people descended on Martyrs' Square in Beirut to mourn Hariri, wave Lebanese flags and demand Syria's withdrawal. The blast did, however, have a chilling effect on one group close to Hariri: his family. Days after their father's funeral, Hariri's four sons fled the country following a warning that they might be next. But as the Syrians began pulling out their troops, paving the way for elections, the Hariri clan grew concerned that without its leadership...