Lebanese prime minister confirms Syria's renewed influence

The Lebanese prime minister, Saad al-Hariri, created a stir with a forthright interview published on 6 September by Asharq Al-Awsat, the London-based Saudi daily. " At a certain point we made a mistake in accusing Syria of assassinating the martyred prime minister [his father, Rafiq al-Hariri]," he said. "This was a political accusation, and that political accusation has now come to an end." A wave of anti-Syrian hostility swept through Lebanon after Rafiq was killed by a suicide truck bomber in Beirut in 2005. It threatened to end the influence of Damascus, a legacy of the 1975-90 civil war in Lebanon. At the time, Saad, who took over the leadership of his father's political party, blamed Syria for the killing, a stance endorsed by the US and France. Five years later, the balance of power has shifted in Lebanon. These days the greatest cause of concern is the military might of the Shia movement Hezbollah, which is trained and controlled by Tehran. As the leader of a coalition government formed in November 2009 comprising pro-Syrian elements (supporters of the Christian general Michel Aoun and Hezbollah), Saad Hariri had little option but to agree to visit Damascus for talks with President Bashar al-Assad. A year earlier, France had patched up relations with Syria, its former protectorate. Rafiq Hariri made a fortune as a property developer in Saudi Arabia and remained on close terms with Riyadh. His assassination seriously upset relations between the Saudi regime and Damascus, but they too have gradually restored links. In November 2009, when fighting between Yemeni rebels, allegedly backed by Tehran, and government troops spilt over the border into Saudi Arabia, it confirmed Riyadh's fears about the Iranian regime. Since then the Saudis have sought to establish closer relations with Syria in the hope of driving a wedge between Damascus and Teheran. In Lebanon the emphasis is on smoothing over the dispute with Syria. A summit meeting in Beirut in July was attended by King Abdullah, Assad and Lebanon's main political parties. Progress has been facilitated by recent developments in the international inquiry into Rafiq's killing, which are soon to be submitted to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Last year, just before the general election that brought Saad to power, an article in the German weekly Der Spiegel cited the possible involvement of Hezbollah in the assassination. This article originally appeared in Le Monde.