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Lebanese Hopes Pinned to Reluctant Billionaire

Posted Aug 14, 07 8:40 AM CDT in World 

(Newser) – Portfolio profiles Saad Hariri, the billionaire who now leads Lebanon's pro-Western majority party and America's last, best Middle Eastern hope. Hariri, pulled into politics when his former-PM father was assassinated in 2005, spends most of his days barricaded inside his Beirut mansion, trying to avoid being murdered by Hezbollah guerrillas.

Hariri could become PM—if he can survive sectarian violence and his own costly blunders—like a $4,000-per-night  "safety" stint in a Paris hotel following the 2005 elections. That would be great news for the US, who sees the one-time construction magnate as its most natural ally in the region. But Hariri seems reluctant to step fully into the leadership vacuum his father left behind. "This was not a choice," he says.

Source Portfolio

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Saad Hariri, right, leader of the anti-Syrian majority bloc in parliament prays at the coffin of lawmaker Walid Eido in a Mosque in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, June 14, 2007. Tens of thousands bade farewell...   (Associated Press)
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, left, shakes hands with Saad Hariri the leader of the anti-Syrian majority and son of slain Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, at his house, in Beirut,...   (Associated Press)
Saad Hariri, the leader of Lebanon's anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and son of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, prays at his father's grave after the U.N. Security Council's approve the...   (Associated Press)
A man looks on from the window of his house next to a poster with pictures of late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, left and his son, leader of the parliamentary majority Saad Hariri, at the Palestinian...   (Associated Press)
Saad Hariri at press conference. (AP Photo/Nader Daoud)   (Associated Press)
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Middle East • Lebanon • Hezbollah • sectarian violence • billionaire • Saad al-Hariri


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