Why Bahaa Hariri can lead Lebanon out of the quagmire

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People following events in Lebanon clearly understand that alliances between corrupt political parties and the Hezbollah militia are the reason for the country’s malaise. This system, which covered Hezbollah’s weapons and its terrorist activity in Syria and Yemen, has supported the militia in order to leverage its power, andmanaged to steal from the Lebanese people both furtively and publicly until the country reached the crisis it now faces.

Since 2005, Lebanon has failed to revive any institution built during the era of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, orbuild any new ones. It put no effort into securing electricity, telecommunications, water, the most basic requirements in a country known as a hub for youth and labor for many countries, including the Arab Gulf states.

This system, which cannot be described as anything other than terrorist, larcenous and corrupt, has plunged Lebanon into darkness and deprived it of its Arab and international incubators. It has starved and isolated its people completely, and left them stranded looking for a ray of hope amid the total collapse of its institutions.

After the Beirut port explosion, the Lebanese become convinced that it was possible to achieve change onlythrough the ballot box. Some people started preparing for this crucial stage that will determine their future and its direction. The country will either return to the Arab embrace, or fall into the quagmire of Iranian terrorism, which has a long history of causing impoverishment, displacement, and starvation to the people of the countries they enter, as has happened in Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon.

Having been abroad for years, Bahaa Rafik Hariri, eldest son of the assassinated former prime minister, decided to heed the people’s suffering and establish a new movement in Lebanon called “Change and Restoration.” Its aim is to free the country from its occupiers and put it back on the right track with the Gulfstates, and rid Lebanon of weapons, terrorism and rampant corruption. This project aims to create change and reform, instead of the quotas, settlements and concessions that have led Lebanon to this dangerous and sensitive stage of its history.

Bahaa Hariri does not believe in the current political system, and he was for years an honest adviser to his brother, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri. He asked his brother many times to avoid alliances that serve neither the people nor the country, especially the four-way alliance with Hezbollah and its allies. But Saad, who was seduced by authority and power, did not listen to his brother’s advice. Bahaa reiterated his advice to prevent Michel Aoun from becoming president, but he did not succeed in that either, as the interests of Saad and his team were deemed more important than the advice given by his older brother.

The project of Rafik Hariri’s son today is to complete the path of his father and implement the Taif Agreementand all its provisions; to free Lebanon from terrorist weapons; to hold corrupt people from all parties accountable, without exception; and to return Lebanon to the Arab embrace, preserving its freedom and independence.

Is this what the Lebanese people want, or do they wish to remain in the quagmire of abhorrent parties and sectarianism that have served only warlords and sects?

• Jerry Maher is a Swedish political writer and analyst specializing in the Middle East and Iran, and a media adviser to Bahaa Hariri.

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