We Won”t Allow the Hindering of the Elections
Al-Mustaqbal movement leader Saad Hariri said the March 14 forces won”t allow the upcoming parliamentary elections to be torpedoed, adding the coalition will engage in the election battle as a unified list.
"We won”t allow the hindering" of the elections, Hariri told al-Mustaqbal daily in remarks published Monday.
He accused March 8 forces of attacking independent candidates "even before they know who they are and what their political and electoral stances are."
Hariri reiterated that the international tribunal that would try his father”s assassins would begin operations on March 1.
"We accept any outcome from it (the court) and the investigation … and I guarantee that there won”t be any deal. They tried in all ways to cripple it and they didn”t succeed," Hariri told al-Mustaqbal.
He stressed that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is aimed at defending the free Lebanon and the voices of independence, Arabism and moderation.
"I am sure the assassins will be punished," the Mustaqbal movement leader said about those who were involved in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri”s Feb. 14, 2005 killing.
About contacts with Hizbullah, Hariri said: "We exchange messages and we already reprimanded them about some statements but we didn”t announce that" to the media.
He urged the Lebanese to participate en masse in the fourth anniversary of his father”s assassination in downtown Beirut”s Martyrs Square.
The Feb. 14 gathering this year is aimed at remembering and honoring "all martyrs in Lebanon and for the sake of its (the country”s) independence, freedom and Arabism," Hariri told his interviewer.
"Heading to Martyrs Square this year has different meanings. We have seen over the past four years the assassination of Premier Hariri and the killing of political and media officials who were the pioneers of the Cedar Revolution. They had challenged the regime of tutelage openly and honestly," the MP said.
He said the people will gather in Martyrs Square to also honor all those who were killed during the Lebanese civil war.
"All those who have lost loved ones would feel that the killing machine is one and that the tribunal would try not just those who killed Rafik Hariri and the Cedar revolution”s martyrs. It would try criminals who assassinated (people) during all this stage and caused the civil war," Hariri said.
He said Beirut citizens are fearless.
Beirut "should not be scared. Its people should head to Martyrs Square the same way they demonstrated against Syrian hegemony" in the aftermath of Hariri”s assassination.