Former Lebanese prime minister Saad al-Hariri returned home on Friday for the first time in three years, on a visit seen as reasserting his leadership over the Sunni community following a deadly incursion by Islamist militants in northeast Lebanon.
Hariri, Lebanon’s most influential Sunni politician, has been in self-imposed exile since 2011, sharing his time between France and Saudi Arabia. He left Lebanon after his government was toppled by a coalition including the Iranian-backed Shi’ite group Hezbollah.
With no prior announcement, Hariri arrived at the Lebanese government’s headquarters in Beirut, where he met Prime Minister Tammam Salam.
The Saudi-backed politician arrived in a Mercedes with blacked-out windows at the central courtyard of the Grand Serail and grinned widely as he walked into the building. Hariri earlier this week announced that Saudi Arabia would donate $1 billion in military aid to Lebanese security forces to help them in the fight against extremists.
“My return comes after the Saudi donation which requires seeing how it can be implemented and translated into support for the army,” Hariri said on his Twitter account.
The Twitter account also said Hariri’s first stop would be at the grave of his father, Rafik al-Hariri, another former Lebanese prime minister whose assassination in 2005 forced Saad to enter political life.
Hariri blames Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the bomb attack in Beirut that killed his father. A special tribunal in the Netherlands has been trying four members of Hezbollah in absentia for the killing.
The group, an ally of Assad, denies any involvement.