Six Days Before the Assassination… Khaddam Told Hariri: “Leave Lebanon.” Hariri Replied: “I Have Elections.”
Abdul Halim Khaddam with Rafik Hariri in June 2001 (AFP)
Six days before the assassination of Rafik Hariri, Abdul Halim Khaddam recounts in his memoirs that he sat down with the former Lebanese prime minister at his home in Beirut over a lunch overshadowed by anxiety, and repeated one piece of advice to him: Leave Lebanon immediately.
According to the memoirs, edited and presented by Ibrahim Hamidi, editor-in-chief of the sister publication Al Majalla, and due to be published by Raf Publishing House, affiliated with the Saudi Research and Media Group, in early September, the story begins several weeks earlier.
In January 2005, during a meeting of the Regional Command of the ruling Baath Party at the Syrian Presidential Palace, whose agenda was organizational in nature, Bashar al-Assad told the members of the leadership: “There is an American-French conspiracy against Syria, and Rafik Hariri is involved in it.” Khaddam says he was as surprised as the other members by this alarming statement. Two days later, he sent a verbal message to Hariri through former Lebanese Defense Minister Mohsen Dalloul, telling him that his situation was complicated and that he should leave Lebanon immediately.
On February 8, 2005, Khaddam went to Beirut for medical examinations at the American University Hospital and then accepted an invitation from Hariri to lunch. Hariri was worried and asked him about the message conveyed by Dalloul. Khaddam explained the situation to him and advised him to leave immediately. Hariri replied: “I have elections… How can I leave the people and go?” Khaddam responded: “Your life is more important than the people, and your family is more important than the elections.”
The memoirs record two notable details from that lunch. First, Hariri asked about the role of Maher al-Assad. He recounted that Aouni al-Kaaki, owner of the newspaper Al-Sharq, had told him that Maher al-Assad was keen to establish a relationship with him and was prepared to resolve the outstanding issues between Hariri and the president, and that he considered Hariri “a loyal friend of Syria.” Khaddam’s response was: “You must be careful and leave Lebanon.”
The second concerned Hariri’s answer when asked about his security protection: “I had fifty security personnel, but they withdrew them and left only six.”
Six days later, while Khaddam was attending a Regional Command meeting in Damascus on February 14, he saw a breaking-news report on a television in the office of one of his colleagues about a massive explosion in Beirut near the British Bank. It was then reported that the explosion had targeted Hariri’s convoy and that he had been killed along with his bodyguards and several civilians.
Khaddam recounts that he informed the presidency of his intention to travel to Beirut to offer his condolences. The response came through the president’s office director: “If you want to go, go in your personal capacity.”
Abdul Halim Khaddam taking part in Rafik Hariri’s funeral on February 16, 2005 (AFP)
He did in fact go, accompanied by his wife and two sons, while the regime decided to boycott the funeral and the condolence gathering. The Syrian state newspapers ran the headline “Major Explosion in Beirut”, without featuring Hariri’s name on their front pages, merely noting in the body of the report that he was “among” the victims—a detail that Khaddam says further strengthened the accusations against Bashar al-Assad.
The memoirs also shed light on an episode that preceded the lunch by four months: the assassination attempt against Minister Marwan Hamadeh, an ally of Walid Jumblatt, in early October 2004. Khaddam describes the attempt as “a warning directed at all those opposing President Lahoud in Lebanon.”
Abdul Halim Khaddam with Walid Jumblatt outside the hospital to which Marwan Hamadeh was taken following the assassination attempt against him in early 2004 (AFP)
He recounts that the following day he called Brigadier General Rustum Ghazaleh, head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon, to inform him that he was coming to Beirut to visit Hamadeh. He then went to the American University Hospital, where Jumblatt and members of his party’s leadership received him, along with Gebran Tueni, while the injured Hamadeh was in the operating room.
Khaddam notes that his direct contact with the president had effectively been cut off since late October 2004, and that communications were thereafter conducted through the president’s office director or by written messages.
Abdul Halim Khaddam alongside Bashar al-Assad during a meeting in June 2005 (AFP)
The significance of this testimony lies in its place within a sequence of publicly documented events: the extension of President Émile Lahoud’s term, UN Security Council Resolution 1559, and the assassination attempt against Marwan Hamadeh, following which Khaddam says he visited him at the hospital accompanied by Walid Jumblatt, followed by the political and media campaign against Hariri, and then the assassination.
The memoirs do not add a verdict. They add a link from inside the room, and a complete countdown: an accusation at the leadership level, a warning message, a final lunch, and then the February 14 explosion.
The details of that final lunch and the messages that preceded it are recounted in full in the chapter “The Assassination of Rafik Hariri” in the book.