Word: hariri
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...Rafik Hariri, who died along with seven of his bodyguards in the explosion...
...Although the longtime Saudi-associated billionaire had many enemies, Syria's accusers say none benefit as much from Hariri's slaying as those in Damascus who want to maintain a stranglehold over Lebanon. The ?confession? broadcast on Lebanese TV, in which a man later identified as a Palestinian refugee purported to take responsibility for the killing in the name of a Qaeda-linked jihad against ?Greater Syria,? was quickly dismissed within the region as a clumsy fraud designed to draw attention away from the real killers...
...Hariri's murder could once again unleash the violent centrifugal forces that originally brought Syria in. The postwar political order has sought to preserve a fragile balance among the warlords on all sides by reserving the presidency for a Christian, the prime minister's job for a Sunni Muslim and the role of Speaker of Parliament for a Shiite. Hariri was a Sunni, of course, but many of the remaining Sunni leadership are historically close to Syria, as is the current Christian president, Emil Lahoud - although other Christian politicians are more critical of Syria. The Shiites, some of whom have...
...some in the Syrian regime had calculated that killing Hariri would send a message of that Syria was the indispensable guarantor of peace, that would have been a dangerous miscalculation - a panicky response to mounting pressure to leave Lebanon to the Lebanese. If anything, now, that pressure is likely to grow. But the government in Damascus, or some elements of it, may well be feeling cause for panic. Syria is isolated diplomatically and under fire from the Bush administration, which accuses Damascus of doing too little to curb the flow of men and money to insurgents in Iraq, and demands...
...cautious in matters involving its own survival. Syria had reportedly been directly warned by both France and the U.S. in recent weeks to refrain from intervening in Lebanese politics in the run-up to May's elections. Now, it has become the focus of discussion in response to the Hariri killing at the UN Security Council. If Damascus had no hand in the assassination of Rafik Hariri, then it has an overwhelming interest in finding the real killer as soon as possible...