Hariri's Opposition Sets Stage for Showdown with Rivals (Rivalries.‪)‬

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri and his allies in the Western-backed March 14 coalition have joined opposition ranks, promising a fierce campaign against what the coalition terms "a Hizbullah-led government" to be formed by Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati. Hariri, who officially launched the March 14 coalition's opposition against the Mikati government on the sixth anniversary of his father's 2005 assassination, former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, was apparently responding to the ouster of his Cabinet by Hizbullah and its allies in the Syrian-backed March 8 bloc last month which eventually cleared the way for Mikati to replace him. Hariri used the occasion to send a two-pronged message to the powerful Shiite Hizbullah group and its Syrian and Iranian backers. While expressing strong support for the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), he rejected Hizbullah's accusation that the tribunal was an American or Israeli tool. Both Iran and Syria have criticized the STL, which is probing Rafik al-Hariri's assassination. Hariri also lashed out at Hizbullah for using its weapons to settle internal political differences, and in a clear reference to the group's arsenal, he pledged to protect national life in Lebanon from the "predominance of weapons."