Lebanon's former PM Saad Hariri bows out of political life

Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Saad Hariri says he will suspend is work in politics and will not run in May’s parliamentary elections

BEIRUT -- Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced Monday he was suspending his work in politics and will not run in parliamentary elections scheduled in May. The decision marks the first time in three decades that the powerful Sunni family is out of politics and comes as Lebanon is in the throes of a financial meltdown.

Hariri’s decision came after Saudi Arabia, once his main backer and the country where the Hariri family made much of its fortune, has distanced itself from the 51-year-old politician.

Hariri, a three-time prime minister and current member of parliament, inherited the political leadership from his late father, billionaire businessman Rafik Hariri, who was one of Lebanon’s most powerful and influential politicians after the end of the 1975-90 civil war. The late Hariri was assassinated in February 2005 in a massive truck bomb in Beirut. Afterward, the family chose Saad Hariri to lead the family despite the fact that he has an older brother.

Hariri said he now sees that Lebanon does not have the chance for a positive future with Iran’s growing influence in Lebanon, internal divisions, rising sectarian sentiments and the dysfunction of the state.