Rafic Hariri

Rafic Bahaa El Deen al-Hariri (رفيق بهاء الدين الحريري; 1 November 1944 – 14 February 2005), also known as Rafiq al-Hariri, was a Lebanese business tycoon and politician, who served as the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000 until he resigned on October 20, 2004.

Hariri was born on 1 November 1944 to a modest Sunni Muslim family in the Lebanese port city of Sidon.

He had two siblings (brother Shafic and sister Bahia).

He attended elementary and secondary school in Sidon, and graduated in business administration from Beirut Arab University.

In 1965, Hariri went to Saudi Arabia to work.

There, he taught for a short period of time before shifting to the construction industry.

In 1969, Hariri established Ciconest, a small subcontracting firm, which soon went out of business.

He then went in business with the French construction firm Oger for the construction of a hotel in Ta’if, Saudi Arabia, the timely construction of which earned praise from King Khaled.

Hariri took over Oger, forming Saudi Oger, which became the main construction firm used by the Saudi Royal family for all their important developments.

As a result, a few years after his first contract with King Khaled, Hariri had become a multi-billionaire.

Having accumulated his wealth, Hariri started a number of philanthropic projects, including the building of educational facilities in Lebanon.

In 1978, he gained Saudi Arabian citizenship, in addition to his Lebanese citizenship.

His first initiative in Lebanon was the Islamic Association for Culture and Education, which he founded in 1979.

The association was later renamed the Hariri Foundation.

Hariri became progressively more embroiled in politics.

His appeals to the United Nations and services as an emissary to the Saudi Royal family won him international recognition on the political stage for his humanitarian efforts.

Hariri returned to Lebanon in the early 1980s as a wealthy man and began to build a name for himself by making large donations and contributions to various groups in Lebanon.

In 1982, Hariri donated $12 million to Lebanese victims of the 1978 South Lebanon conflict and helped clean up Beirut's streets with his company's money and contributed to early reconstruction efforts during lulls in the Lebanon war.

Said to have heavily financed opposing militias during the war, his former deputy Najah Wakim later accused him of helping to destroy downtown Beirut to rebuild it again and make billions of dollars in the process.

After the conflict, he acted as an envoy of the Saudi royal family to Lebanon.

However, he continued to serve as a political advisor to Prince Bandar bin Sultan in 1983.

He was implanted as the Saudis' strong man following the collapse of the PLO and the paucity of any viable Sunni leadership in the country as well as a response to the rising power of the Shiite militia Amal.

He laid the groundwork that led to the 1989 Taif Accord, which Saudi Arabia organised to bring the warring factions together.

Taif put an end to the civil war, building goodwill for Hariri politically.

While acting as the Saudi envoy to Lebanon, he spent more time in Damascus than in Beirut where he ingratiated himself with the Assad regime; he had a new presidential palace built in Damascus as a gift to the Syrian dictator but Assad didn't use it personally.

As a former Saudi diplomatic representative, he played a significant role in constructing the 1990 Taif Agreement that ended Lebanon's sixteen-year civil war.

In 1992, Hariri became the first post-civil war prime minister of Lebanon under president Elias Hrawi.

In addition, he was the minister of finance.

After the 1996 elections he also took on the role of minister of post and telecommunications.

He was assassinated in 2005.

Hariri headed five cabinets during his tenure.

He was widely credited for his role in constructing the Taif Agreement that ended the 15-year Lebanese Civil War.

He also played a huge role in reconstructing the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

He was the first post-civil war prime minister and the most influential and wealthiest Lebanese politician until his assassination.

Hariri was assassinated on 14 February 2005 by a suicide truck bomb in Beirut.

Four Hezbollah members were indicted for the assassination and are being tried in absentia by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, but others have linked the assassination to the Syrian government.

The outcome of a 15-year investigation led to the guilty verdict of multiple people in Hezbollah's party taking part; however, the only one left alive would be Salim Ayyash, a well-connected, mid-level operative in Hezbollah.

The assassination was a catalyst for dramatic political change in Lebanon.

The massive protests of the Cedar Revolution helped achieve the withdrawal of Syrian troops and security forces from Lebanon and a change in governments.

At one point, Hariri was one of the world's 100 wealthiest men and the fourth-richest politician.