Report: U.S., France Advised Hariri to Stay Abroad on Fear of Assassination Plot
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
U.S. sources have informed caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri about a plan to assassinate him in Beirut, “which was supposed to be carried out in May,” Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai reported.
In a report published Monday, the newspaper said the U.S. warnings to Hariri “coincided with similar warnings from the Saudi and French authorities.”
Al-Rai noted that Washington, Paris and several capitals in the region have been following up on surveillance operations conducted by parties in Lebanon since August 2010 to track Hariri’s movements, adding that these capitals have urged the Lebanese leader to be extremely careful while traveling in Lebanon.
“Surveillance operations were carried out to track Hariri’s convoy as it passed along the (Beirut) airport road, and sometimes at the airport itself,” the newspaper quoted the U.S. sources as saying.
The U.S. sources advised Hariri “to stay outside Lebanon during this period to avoid political and security traps,” according to Al-Rai.
“The U.S. administration always expects the worse, especially during periods of domestic and regional tensions,” the sources added, noting that “when the events in Syria had started to deteriorate day after day, … the indications pointing out that an assassination operation against Hariri was being plotted increased in an unprecedented manner.”
In this regard, the newspaper quoted a U.S. official as saying that “after the U.S. intelligence agencies unveiled the assassination attempt previously scheduled for May, and after the intelligence agencies of the friendly countries confirmed the presence of such a plan,” officials in Washington started to “try to figure out the possible political motivations behind the plot to murder Hariri.”
According to the same official, Washington believes that the liquidation of Saad Hariri is apt to “turn the tables in Lebanon, as well as in the region, and turning the tables at the moment is in the interest of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which is struggling for survival in the face of the popular uprising.”
As to how Assad could benefit from assassinating a non-Syrian figure behind Syria’s borders, the newspaper quoted U.S. sources involved in the aforementioned political evaluations as saying that murdering Hariri is apt to “lead to full-blown sectarian chaos and tensions in Lebanon, and consequently a Sunni-Shiite confrontation which Assad would use as an excuse in his bid to militarily quell the popular revolt in Syria.”
The same sources told the newspaper that “Assad has asked Hizbullah to ignite the south Lebanon front and launch a war against Israel, but Hizbullah does not feel that it is in trouble like its ally Assad, and hence does not see the need to engage in a vicious war with Israel that would not guarantee the survival of the Syrian president’s regime.”
But, according to the U.S. sources, Hizbullah is “willing to engage in a Lebanese civil war, as it knows in advance that it will emerge as the strongest party in it.”
Such a war “is apt to deviate the world’s attention from what’s happening in Syria,” the sources added.
Al-Rai quotes another U.S. official as saying that “Assad needs another operation similar to the May 7, 2008 operation, during which Hizbullah conquered its rivals in Lebanon, and murdering Saad Hariri is the only available means at the moment for the Syrian regime to ignite a major inferno, which it believes the international community will beg it to douse.”
12 June 2011, 23:41
33
This article is full of Crap !!!
If the West and Israel are planning to kill him like they killed his great father in order to continue their quest for a new Middle East were everywhere you turn, Sunnis and Shittes are killing each other while Israel grows stronger, then they'll need to find a more serious excuse this time.
Blaming Syria and Hizbullah and UFO's again wont work.
13 June 2011, 00:12
02
I hope the rest of the politicians follow and all stay out of Lebanon
13 June 2011, 00:22
22
I quit reading the article as soon as I read what the source was in the first paragraph.
13 June 2011, 03:10
20
For saad Alhariri to be outside of Lebanon for an extended period of time gives credence to the story here. However, I do believe that behind closed doors Hizbullah is preparing plan B for any possibility of Assad not remaining in power and for the Sunni to form a government in Syria which will cost them their ally (Assad) but will not decrease their power as they still have the support of Iran. This eventuality of assad not remaining in power would deminish the potency and ability of Huzbullah to take over beirut as the new government in Syria would be supportive of Hariri. Hariri stands to gain tremendously from assad's removal. His popularity would sky rocket indeed. It's also in Huzbullah benefit to court hariri in preparation for regime change in Syria.
13 June 2011, 04:04
21
All you guys who think Israel and the US are behind all the mess in Syria then you guys are all morons ,in fact it is from GOD for all the years of torture , Theft, rape and murders committed by the Syria army in Lebanon.
As for who killed Rafi Hariri everyone with a mind of there own knows it was Syria and HA.
13 June 2011, 04:16
13
Those who don't believe that the Syrian regime is willing to fuel a sectarian war in Lebanon are fools and live on another planet. If the Baathist Party and the Assad tribe are capable of murdering their own people in order to survive, they are capable of igniting sectarian war in Lebanon thru their proxies whether its the Baathists, SSNP or Hizbullah. The unfortunate and sad part about it is that there are bunch of Lebanese politicians and clonies who sold out their patriotism and effectively willing to do anything to get the approval of their masters in Syria and Iran. Wake up guys.
13 June 2011, 05:53
22
If tracking and following a person constitutes "plotting a murder," then I suppose Israel's video surveillance of Rafiq Hariri's movements before his assassination proves they did it.
Pity that a Lebanese publication sees fit to print highly inflammatory comments from "sources" in Washington, Paris and Riyadh.
13 June 2011, 08:57
22
Saad HARIRI shoud resign , stay in Paris at the Plaza Athénée where he is actually , quit politics and Lebanon . This is the only solution for Lebanon to get rid of corruption , and to have back peace and stability as it use to be before Rafik Hariri's Taef era .
He spends more time outside Lebanon in palaces and on board of his private planes ! We dont need such a PM .. He is a business man not a politician .
A politician has no right to be a coward like Saad Hariri .
13 June 2011, 09:49
12
@Le Phenicien, you obviously support Aoun and M8. Me personally, I don't support any of the existing politicians, I think they should all go and I believe in a secular government.
But what I find particularly shocking is how you call yourself Le Phenicien and support Mr. Nasrallah, not realizing that he laughs at people like you who think they are Phoenician.
13 June 2011, 09:55
00
@Le Phenicien
do you realize that Miqati is a Businessman as well? I'm sure do, it's just worth mentioning.
13 June 2011, 10:42
22
@ CHARBEL ,
Yes Mikati is a businessman like Saad Hariri and on the same level .., and it's about time to vote a law in Lebanon that forbids to have businessmen politicians in office .
But the difference between the 2 is that Mikati never travels to recieve orders from KSA or elsewhere like Saad and his father did and stil do .!!
13 June 2011, 11:00
22
@Le Phenicien
amazed how you dare talking about cowardness !
tell us about that brave who left his soldiers and ran in his pajamas , will you?
13 June 2011, 12:54
22
@ TABASCO ,
Prostituting history like you people have been doing for the last 20 years with your lies , doesn't work anymore .
GMA did not leave Baabda on his own will ! He was called by the French ambassador René ALA , that wanted to give him an important " verbal " message from the French president Mitterand , Once there , he was told that he is under French protection " by force " because the Syrian army is invading the Christian areas " called the free land " by an international political decision ... then sent to France to his " forced EXILE "
While YOU and your friends ,at that time , were on the Syrian side , shelling the presidential palace and the ministry of deffense at Yarzé , killing lebanese soldiers and officers ( YOU TRAITORS ) .
This is the truth , not yours that is nothing but a propaganda . Anyway history has already written the true scénario , not yours .
13 June 2011, 14:19
31
Good old USA and France; up to their dirty old games again.
Wake up everyone!!!!
This article is full of crap!!!
13 June 2011, 15:23
22
Le Fini go read the memoirs of ambassador Ala and General Kallas. Aoun called Ala and capitulated less than an hour after the invasion started but was informed that the attacks would not stop until he announced his surrender publicly. But instead of doing it immediately the coward ran to the French embassy to do it costing countless lives just to save his skin.
13 June 2011, 22:59
00
Rather have a leader travelling to democratic countries than one that hides in a hole and plays tough or others travelling to countries of the axis of evil
