26 Facts About Saad Hariri

Saad Hariri served as Prime Minister of Lebanon from 9 November 2009 to 13 June 2011.

Saad Hariri was designated as prime minister on 22 October 2020, but failed to form a government and resigned on 15 July 2021.

Saad Hariri was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on 18 April 1970, and is the son of Rafic Hariri and his first wife Nidal Bustani, an Iraqi woman from the city of Mosul.

Saad Hariri graduated in 1992 from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University with a degree in business administration.

Saad Hariri was the leader of the March 14 Alliance, a coalition of political groups born out of the Cedar Revolution which, through mass popular demonstrations and Western support, led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon in 2005 after a 29-year presence.

Saad Hariri was first elected prime minister from 9 November 2009 until 13 June 2011.

On 12 January 2011, minutes after Saad Hariri posed for pictures with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, the opposition parties resigned from his unity government cabinet, causing its collapse.

Saad Hariri continued on for four months as caretaker Prime Minister.

Saad Hariri released a statement in response, describing Bashar al-Assad as a "monster".

On 4 November 2017, in a televised statement from Saudi Arabia, Saad Hariri tendered his resignation from office, citing Iran's and Hezbollah's political over-extension in the Middle East region and fears of assassination.

Anti-Hezbollah blogger Michael Young stated that he did not think Saad Hariri was an actual hostage of the Saudi regime, but that the situation confirmed Saad Hariri's close ties with them.

However, Lebanese-American political scientist As'ad AbuKhalil claimed that the Saudis had jailed and physically restrained and assaulted Saad Hariri before ordering him to broadcast his resignation.

Saad Hariri was able to make such a request due to Hariri's French citizenship.

Saad Hariri stated that President Michel Aoun had asked him to "put it on hold ahead of further consultations".

Saad Hariri refused to talk about what happened in Saudi Arabia and claimed that events will remain undisclosed.

Saad Hariri's government was widely viewed as corrupt by the Lebanese people.

Saad Hariri was backed by his Future Movement, PSP and Amal Movement, receiving 65 votes, 4 less than his predecessor Diab, while Hezbollah along with major Christian parties, Free Patriotic Movement and Lebanese Forces, did not endorse him.

Saad Hariri met with Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey in January 2021, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Egypt in February, and visited Mohammed bin Zayed in United Arab Emirates several times.

Saad Hariri has been criticized for spending a great amount of time outside Lebanon, while the absence of a government worsened the financial crisis in the country, and his trips were seen as an attempt to compensate the support he lacked from Saudi Arabia.

On 24 January 2022 Saad Hariri announced his withdrawal from Lebanese Politics and that he would not run in the 2022 general elections.

Saad Hariri called on the Future Movement to follow suit and not run in the upcoming parliamentary elections nor nominate anyone to run on its behalf.

Saad Hariri born in 1970 in Riyadh is the second son of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri and his first wife Nidal Bustani, an Iraqi.

Saad Hariri has an older brother Bahaa Hariri was born on 1967 and and another brother Houssam Hariri who died young in a traffic accident.

Saad Hariri married Lara Al Azem in 1998, the daughter of Bashir Al Azem, an influential and wealthy Syrian construction magnate.

Saad Hariri lived in Paris from 2011 to 2014 for safety reasons, and returned to Lebanon on 8 August 2014.

In 2013, Saad Hariri allegedly paid South African bikini model, Candice van der Merwe, a $16 million cash gift after meeting her in the Seychelles.