BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri urged Hezbollah to surrender its weapons to the state and reconsider its opposition to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
“I call on Hezbollah to reconsider its stance regarding the international tribunal,” Hariri said, adding that Hezbollah’s refusal to hand over the accused would implicate the party.
Hariri spoke from Paris on the seventh anniversary of the assassination of his father, addressing a crowded audience at the Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure center via live video feed.
“We urge Hezbollah to place its arms at the disposal of the state so as to avert violence and prevent the state from collapsing."
He also said the then-nascent Lebanese March 14 movement that began following the 2005 assassination of his father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, had been the trigger for revolts engulfing the region.
“Nothing could transform my sadness to hope today but this; the knowledge that what we launched seven years ago is now being mirrored in various countries ... in the face of corrupt, brutal regimes,” said Hariri said.
“The Lebanese did not remain silent and did not succumb but took to the streets and chanted: the people want,” Saad Hariri said.
“Justice in the case of Rafik Hariri is on its way to being achieved,” he declared.
“Revolutions everywhere are demanding freedom and saying that no matter how much you try to oppress the people, they were born free."
“I take full responsibility for the previous era, both its good and bad times.”
“I take full responsibility for standing in solidarity with the Syrian people and support their right to establish a democratic system,” he said.
“It is the responsibility of the Lebanese and March 14 to prevent strife,” Hariri cautioned.
“Lebanon today has reached a milestone with two events: the first is the Arab Spring and the countdown for the collapse of one-party rule in Syria, and the second is the countdown to the trial of those who assassinated Rafik Hariri,” he said.
“The Syrian people will be victorious, God willing, despite the massacres, and the Syrian regime is doomed to collapse. We are witnessing a historic transformation,” he maintained.
Hariri also emphasized that he and his followers do not consider Shiites guilty of the assassination of his father.
“We say it clearly: We do not hold our Shiite brothers in Lebanon responsible for the killing of Rafik Hariri, but consider his blood as theirs and ours and that of all the Lebanese,” Hariri said.
“We have chosen the path of justice and not revenge,” he stressed.
“We know that Lebanese Shiites are similar to all Lebanese: they support freedom, dignity and democracy just like the people of Syria. They support democracy in Lebanon and in Syria,” Hariri said.