Saad Hariri stirs up storm with comment understood to call for support to Hezbollah

Saad Hariri, Former Prime Minister of Lebanon, stirred up a virtual storm after he tweeted a post which many understood to imply calling for solidarity with Hezbollah.

Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, is the son of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, who was assassinated in Beirut in 2005, with the perpetrator found by a tribunal to have been carried out by a Hezbollah operative. Against the backdrop of Israel's retaliatory attacks targeting Hezbollah's weapon caches, Hariri tweeted yesterday (September 24) a vaguely redacted post, reading: “National solidarity is a moral and political duty at this stage of Lebanon's history. Our people in the South, the Bekaa, and the Dahya neighborhood are a trust for all Lebanese, and supporting them takes precedence over any consideration.”

The controversial post gained much traction, with over 1.2 million views, 10,000 likes, 2,100 reposts, and 1,400 comments, and was met with mixed feelings. Some, especially pro-Hezbollah users, lauded Hariri for standing for national unity and quoted Shi’i cleric Musa Sader praising coexistence in the face of a “war with Israel”.

However, many others denounced the tweet, understanding it as a call to support Hezbollah, perhaps based on the specific locations mentioned by Hariri, which are known to be Hezbollah strongholds in the country.

One user named Murad commented: “How can we support those who killed the martyr Rafik Hariri? How can we support those who said that their battle is with us and described us as “Yazidis”? How can we support those who invaded Beirut and at every opportunity threaten to invade it again? A believer is not bitten from the same hole twice. We have been bitten many times.”

Another one named Amir added: “You sold your father's blood before. You wouldn't have come this far if you had any blood.”

A third user wrote: “You support the one who killed your father, the national leader… Where do you live, in la la land?”

Hariri and the Gulf

Especially salient were commenters from the Gulf who made their perceived rejection of the post and the insinuation of supporting Hezbollah.

A Kuwaiti user also reminded Hariri of his late father: “This is why the Arab leaders knew you and isolated you, you coward. Did you forget your father's blood? Have you forgotten who was gloating over your loss, burned your pictures, and beat up your supporters?”

Another Kuwaiti writer named Mohammad Yousef Al-Malifi also denounced the tweet, commenting: “Bizarre Oh, Saad Hariri! Aren't they the ones who blew up your father?! Aren't those you call to support the ones you yourself said about them: ‘that Lebanon's problems lie in the control of this Iranian party over it?!’ Where are your solidarity and morals? We did not see them when this party took control of the defenseless in Syria and killed hundreds of thousands of them just because they were Sunnis!”

A Saudi user named Fahad commented: “For general knowledge... Those who this coward sympathizes with are the ones who killed his father in cold blood, and they even celebrated killing him in front of him. One wishes that God does not bless him with a son like cowardly Saad.”

A fourth Saudi user named Omar added: “They burned your father, you useless coward.”

Saad Hariri’s ties to the Gulf are complex, as he holds Lebanese and Saudi citizenship. In 2017, Hariri announced his resignation from his post as prime minister during a visit to Saudi Arabia, citing the influence and control of Iran and Hezbollah over Lebanon. However, this move was seen by many to have been forced upon him by Saudi authorities, including then Lebanese President Michel Aoun, who reportedly regarded Hariri as “detained” in Saudi Arabia. Notedly, Hariri also suspended his resignation and completely rescinded it upon returning to Beirut several days later.

In 2020, a tribunal found Hezbollah operative Salim Ayyash guilty of the assassination but also declared that there was no sufficient evidence to support the claim that Hezbollah’s leadership or the Syrian regime had known about the assassination plan. Despite this, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declined to allow the arrest of Ayyash, while Saad Hariri called for Hezbollah to “make sacrifices” to carry out the sanctioned punishment.