Al-Hariri’s return to Beirut

Written by Nasser Kandil,

As a result of the absence of the Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri of the capital Beirut and his stay abroad, no one of the Lebanese people suggests that the engagement in the political resolving and then putting the constitutional elections on the way for producing a new President for the Republic is possible, everyone agrees especially the opponents of the Prime Minister Al-Hariri in the internal, regional and presidential issue and at the their forefront Hezbollah that the country needs an atmosphere of consensus to solve the knots of the political tension, or to achieve the presidential election, thus the keenness on making the presidential elections an entry for the forming of the country and the big consensus on the new president were clear in the speech of the Secretary – General of Hezbollah Al Sayyed Hassan Nasrollah, and consequently linking the constitutional achievement with the participation that based on the understanding with Al Mustqbal Movement.

The return of the Prime Minister Al-Hariri as his followers and those who are close to him said that it was not a mere a visit to participate in the commemoration of the assassination of his father, but it was an intention to say in Beirut. Many of his allies and opponents have already called him to stay in Beirut because this will create an atmosphere of the political communication with its Movement which remained fragmented, embarrassing, and a  source of confusing the others either the opponents or the allies within the attempt of more than an authority in the Movement to snatch the leadership, and to claim the political representation of the Movement during the absence of Al-Hariri, in addition to the contradiction of these authorities, their positions, and their competition on filling the vacancy, and within the conviction of all that no one has the interest in disintegrating Al-Mustaqbal Movement, the dissociation of its ranks and the weakness of its presence, because the only beneficiary which is ready to weaken Al- Mustaqbal and its leaders as was the matter but doubly with the harsh absence of the assassination of the Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri is the extreme sectarianism and the extreme apostasy  which become one in such cases, they have an organized structure, financial ability, and military structure that is capable of mobilizing the outcome of fragmentation and disintegration in Al-Musaqbal Movement through pockets that become ready and have extensions inside and around Al-Mustaqbal Movement, and which emerge whenever there is an opportunity. Thus the return of Al-Hariri is to collect his movement, to gather its joints and to restore its cohesive and effective image which is desired and needed by the allies and the opponents as a part of the necessities of the political security of the country.

Since the absence of Al-Hariri no one has wanted to deal with the absence as a result of an exceptional security risk to the extent of justifying the absence, despite the certainty that Lebanon, which is involved in the conflicts of the region and in the heart of their risks is not in a perfect security situation specially according to the security of the important politician leaders, this can be applied on him and on those who are threatened and lived in Lebanon, it was clear that the absence was a result of the certainty that the rounds of the conflicts in the region and the degree of the involvement in them makes the main job of Al-Hariri through his position in these conflicts from the outside of Lebanon functional, while his presence in Lebanon is not functional since everything is postponing and nothing can be done effectively but  marking time, just for that the Lebanese whether allies or opponents are foreshadowing of his return as an expression of reverse certainty, as long as there is nothing can be done from the abroad, and what can be done  now from Lebanon is its time and it is too much.

The speech of the Prime Minister Al-Hariri in the commemoration of the departure of his father the martyr Rafik Al-Hariri was an expression that increases the conviction of welcoming, not because it has vocabularies and harmonic formulations that foreshadowing of goodness but because regarding the issues which he talked about, he expressed about the waiting role that he must play, regarding the controversial issue with Hezbollah it was a speech that tried to adhere to the Blue Movement preventing those who were trying to snatch it and distributing its inheritance, and claiming an alternative paternity and leaderships that are ready to inherit.  While regarding the presidential issue it was a speech that narrated the facts of the merits but in the language of the narrator not an owner of a situation, this is useful in order to resume the dialogues with the allies and the opponents whom he mentioned presidentially as the General Michael Aoun, the Head of the Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea, the Deputy Suleiman Franjieh, and always Bkirki and the Deputy Walid Jumblatt.

Al-Hariri has remembered repeatedly Jumblatt and has mentioned his candidate the Deputy Henry Al-Helou through his calling for going to the parliament and electing a president out of three candidates, which he knows that this will not be happened, and that the speech about welcoming whatever and however was the result, it showed the truth of degree of welcoming which he and his movement have practiced with the nomination of Najib Mikati as a Prime Minister, when there was an enough majority to nominate him numerically according to the constitutional text, and as a result of political positioning that was well known by Al-Hariri within conditions of respecting the Chartism, in a similar way to what is presented of competition regarding the presidential choice today, moreover his dealing and the dealing of his movement with the position of prime minister at that day by targeting the nominated prime minister was a precedent, that no one can ensure the non-treatment of the elected Christian President by the popular Christian majority blocs on the same manner of nominating the Prime Minister Mikati and within the same chartered conditions, therefore despite the constitutional integrity it has been settled  by a political positioning that may be replicable, thus the elected president will be dealt and its nomination will be disrupted with the same manner of dealing of Al Mostaqbal Movement with the Prime Minister Mikati and disrupting his nomination, thus there is no need to try the experience but to repeat the spiritual prayer of Bkirki” Oh God keep us away from the experiences – Amen”.

Translated by Lina Shehadeh,