The “Al Sharq Al Awsat” newspaper published another side of the memoirs of former Syrian Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam, addressing the stance of Bashar al-Assad towards Rafik Hariri before his assassination.
Khaddam talked about the Syrian position before Hariri’s assassination within the corridors of the Syrian regime, manifested in a statement by the then Syrian Foreign Minister, Farouk al-Sharaa, during a party meeting in 2004. Al-Sharaa stated that Rafik Hariri was “conspiring against Syria and was connected to the United States and France against Syria.”
This statement was reiterated by Bashar al-Assad in a meeting of the Qatari leadership of the Ba’ath Party in mid-January 2005 (about a month before Hariri’s assassination), according to Khaddam’s account. Al-Assad stated, “There is an American-French conspiracy in which Hariri is involved, conspiring against us, and he is unifying his sect around him (i.e., the Sunnis), and this poses a threat to Syria.”
Khaddam asked al-Assad after the meeting about the regime’s interest in Syria’s campaign against France, the United States, and Hariri, and whether he realized the seriousness of the situation if the conversation leaked, and the significance of Sunni sect unification being a threat to Syria.
Abu Jamal (Khaddam) questioned, “Does the unification of the Shiite sect around Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and the Maronites around Suleiman Frangieh not pose a threat?” Reminding Bashar al-Assad that Syria has a Sunni majority, to which al-Assad replied, “There is a conspiracy.”
The memoirs also stated that Abdul-Halim Khaddam informed Rafik Hariri through an intermediary to leave Lebanon immediately “because the hatred against him is significant.”
During a visit to Hariri’s home days before his assassination, Khaddam told Hariri that Bashar al-Assad’s statement was clear, and the punishment for the accusation of conspiracy was death. Therefore, Hariri was advised to leave Beirut today or tomorrow.
According to the memoirs, Hariri showed Khaddam a letter from the head of the Fourth Division of the Syrian Army, Maher al-Assad, Bashar’s brother, saying, “We love you and will support you. When you come to Damascus, expect your visit. We want your support,” questioning the reason for sending such a message if they intended to kill him.
Khaddam believed that Maher’s message to Hariri was a “means to keep him in Lebanon until they kill him.”
It is worth noting that Rafik Hariri was assassinated on February 14, 2005, in a bombing near the “St. George” hotel in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Following the incident, the United Nations established the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which on August 18, 2020, convicted Salim Ayyash, suspected of affiliation with Hezbollah, in connection with the assassination, while acquitting the remaining defendants of the crime.
