Lebanon's ex-PM Saad Hariri 'not likely to run' in coming election

Country's leading Sunni politician to give a speech this afternoon

Former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri greets supporters during a rally outside his house in downtown Beirut. EPA

Latest updates: Saad Hariri steps down

Three-time Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri is expected to announce on Monday that he will not stand for parliament in elections later this year, a member of his Future Movement told The National, leaving the Sunni Muslim community without a clear political leadership during the worsening economic crisis.

“It is likely that Mr Hariri will announce that he will not present himself at the elections; neither will his parliamentary block,” MP Mohammad Hajjar told The National.

Two other Future Movement sources, who asked to remain anonymous, said the party was debating whether to participate at all in the elections, scheduled for May 15.

“Mr Hariri will resign temporarily from politics and he will support individuals as representatives of the Future Movement,” a source said.

Mr Hariri, who returned on Wednesday from a several-month stay in the UAE, is expected to give a speech at 4pm Beirut time detailing his political future.

“It seems he's withdrawing from politics but at the same time there's a possibility that he'll make a political statement in which he hints that participating in elections or in the political process altogether is not useful given Hezbollah's arsenal,” said Mohannad Hage Ali, a research fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Centre.

Mr Hariri is traditionally aligned with Gulf states and Western countries and politically opposed to Iran-backed Hezbollah, though the two parties have compromised multiple times in the past in Parliament.

Hezbollah is the only Lebanese political party that kept its weapons at the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

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  Former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri and his sons Saad, left and Bahaa, centre, perform Umrah at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, in 2003. Saad would go on to become prime minister in 2009, four years after the assassination of his father. All photos: AFP

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  Saad Hariri and Solange Gemayel, the widow of assassinated president and Christian warlord Bashir Gemayel, attend a press conference in Beirut in 2005, where Hariri announced his list for the coming elections. Ms Gemayel became a shoo-in for Beirut's only Maronite Christian seat.

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  Saad with Rafik Hariri's sister, Bahia, during the funeral procession for former minister Bassel Fleihan, Hariri's close aide, who died from wounds sustained in the February 14 bomb blast that killed the prime minister.

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  UAE President Sheikh Khalifa receives Saad Hariri on December 4, 2005 in Abu Dhabi.

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  Mr Hariri, newly-elected Lebanese parliamentarian, meets Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York, in 2005, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

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  Former French president Jacques Chirac with Hariri in 2005, after a meeting at the Elysee palace in Paris.

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  With Jordan's King Abdullah II on the sidelines of UN General Assembly in New York, 2005.

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  US envoy David Welch, left, then assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, meets Mr Hariri in Beirut, in 2007. Mr Welch held talks in Lebanon to discuss a presidential void.

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  With Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, in 2011.

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  French President Emmanuel Macron walks between Saad Hariri and UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed, right, as they arrive to attend the Lebanon International Support Group meeting in Paris on December 8, 2017.

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  Mr Hariri delivers a speech to mark the 10th anniversary of the assassination of his father in Beirut, 2015.

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  With former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, in 2008.

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  Mr Hariri greets Lebanon's newly-elected Sunni Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Deryan, in 2014.

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  Former US president George W Bush shares a light moment with Mr Hariri during their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, in 2006.

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  Vice President and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, then Crown Prince of Dubai, receives Mr Hariri in 2005.

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  With Lebanese President Michel Aoun at the presidential palace in Beirut, in 2020.

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  Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin meets Mr Hariri in Moscow, in 2021.

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  With then Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, in 2005, at the UN in New York.

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  France's former president Francois Hollande, right, welcomes Mr Hariri to a meeting at the Elysee presidential palace, in 2012.

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  Mr Hariri salutes thousands of supporters in Lebanon's Miniyeh region.

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  Greeting supporters upon arrival at his home in Beirut, in 2017, after a mysterious odyssey that resulted in him announcing his resignation while in Saudi Arabia. Hariri told cheering supporters that he was staying.

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  With former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in 2005.

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  Meeting Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Beirut, in 2005.

Mr Hariri served as prime minister from November 2009 to June 2011 and a second time from December 2016 to January 2020.

He was appointed for a third time as prime minister in October 2020 but announced in July that he had failed to form a Cabinet because of political bickering.

“May God help the country,” he said as he ended his attempt to form an administration.

Lebanon is suffering from its worst economic crisis to date, which has pushed almost three-quarters of the population into poverty.

On Monday, the cabinet met for the first time in more than three months to discuss a range of stalled urgent economic and financial issues, including the 2022 state budget.

Ministers representing Iran-backed and heavily militarised Hezbollah and its ally Amal movement have boycotted cabinet meetings since October to protest against what they described as a “biased” probe into the devastating explosion at Beirut's port in August 2020, paralysing the executive arm of the Lebanese political system.

Speculation about the future role of Mr Hariri in Lebanese politics was rife in Lebanese media on Monday, with daily Annahar writing that while the Cabinet meets for the first time in months, “all eyes are on Hariri".

The newspaper claimed that Mr Hariri had had multiple secret meetings with the country's top political leaders since his return last week, including Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

A potential withdrawal of Mr Hariri from elections caused worry and confusion at the weekend among Lebanon's Sunni Muslim community.

Local media reported on Sunday that dozens of his supporters drove from all over the country to Mr Hariri's house in Beirut, waving his party's blue flag and asking him to participate in the electoral process.

Mr Hariri responded by saying that his home would “remain open to all".