From peasant to billionaire - the life and death of Hariri

Father-of-six Rafik Hariri, who died in a Beirut bomb blast today, was a business tycoon who became one of Lebanon’s most influential politicians and served as its prime minister for most of its post-civil war years. He was 60.

Hariri’s vast fortune – estimated at almost €3bn – allowed him to maintain an independent political posture without defying his country’s main powerbroker, Syria, which keeps about 15,000 troops in Lebanon and influences virtually all key political decisions.

Hariri led his country’s revival after the 1975-90 civil war, serving as prime minister for 10 of 14 years before stepping down in October 2004 amid an intense power struggle. For years, he had been engaged in a fierce rivalry with Lebanon’s pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud.

Though Hariri had publicly tried to avoid offending Damascus, his pro-Syrian opponents accused him of being the driving force behind the US-backed UN Security Council resolution in September that demanded Syria withdraw its army from Lebanon.

The Lebanese government invited Syria into the country to provide security during the war, but Damascus never released its grip.

Hariri, a Sunni Arab, was a central figure in securing the Al-Taif peace agreement that ended the Lebanese war, which pitted the country’s religious parties – including the Israeli-backed Christians and Syrian-supported Sunnis and Shiites – against each other.

Hariri first became prime minister in October 1992 – a move hoped to restore national confidence in the Lebanese economy and bolster the country’s burgeoning business community. In 1998, he lost his post after a squabble with then Lebanese President Elias Hrawi over how to resolve the country's ailing economy.

He was asked to form a new government in October 2000 after he won landslide majority in the general elections.

Four years later, he resigned following the extension of Lahoud’s presidency, which was secured by a Syrian-backed constitutional amendment that Hariri had opposed. The extension was in defiance of UN Security Council resolution 1559 adopted Sept. 2, 2004, that called for a withdrawal of Syrian troops and for Lebanese presidential elections to be held.

After stepping down, Hariri had kept himself largely on the sidelines. But some quarters had been describing him as the “silent opponent” to Lebanon’s current pro-Syrian government. Members of Hariri’s parliamentary bloc had also been taking part in opposition meetings calling on Syria to extract its soldiers from Lebanon.

Born into a modest peasant family in the southern port city of Sidon, Hariri became one of the region’s wealthiest men. He started out as an accountant and studied commerce before moving to Saudi Arabia and making his fortune in construction, building crucial ties with the Saudi monarchy along the way and receiving Saudi citizenship in 1987.

Hariri ran a commercial empire that also embraced computers, banking, insurance, real estate and television and was the majority owner of Lebanon’s Future Television.

He used his close relations with Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich leaders to rebuild Lebanon following its civil war.

He is survived by his wife, Nazik, and six children.