BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri called for mass participation in Sunday's rally in Beirut over the killing of a top intelligence official and said the slain officer had prevented President Bashar Assad from destabilizing Lebanon.
"Every one of you is personally invited tomorrow to participate at Martyrs' Square to pray for [Brig. Gen.] Wissam al-Hasan," Hariri said in a phone conversation with Future Television.
Hariri added that Hasan "protected Lebanon from Bashar Assad and Ali Mamlouk's plot to destabilize Lebanon and left himself expose to the bombing so that you and Lebanon would be spared of that."