Word: syrian
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...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 and some of the intelligence operatives who had stifled Lebanese...
...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 at the end of May to begin a formal investigation, but it's unclear whether the probe will finger the perpetrators...
...tried to court the younger Assad, but by last summer the two men were on a collision course. First Assad ordered Hariri to support a change to Lebanon's constitution that would extend the tenure of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, 68, a former Lebanese general widely viewed as a Syrian puppet. Assad believed that Hariri was behind U.N. Resolution 1559, a measure sponsored last year by the U.S. and France demanding that Syria withdraw its remaining 14,000 troops from Lebanon. A well-placed Western diplomat says Hariri was the "main mover and shaker, the one who managed to forge...
...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, a Protestant who was his closest economic adviser, and Dr. Ghattas Khoury, a Maronite Christian surgeon...
...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...