Hariri remembers Chatah as symbol of moderation, dialogue

BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri remembered Saturday his senior adviser Mohammad Chatah, who was killed in a car bomb last year, saying that the former minister was a symbol of moderation and dialogue.

“With his absence, we are missing a critical symbol of dialogue and never giving up in looking for solutions and finding an end to difficult crises,” Hariri said in a statement commemorating the first anniversary of Chatah’s assassination.

"Mohammad Chatah is absent today from a political moment in which he should have been at the front row, expressing the Future Movement's decision to make Lebanon's safety a top priority above all sectarian, religious or regional interests.”

Hariri is referring to the dialogue between Hezbollah and Future Movement that the two rivals launched earlier this week in an attempt to contain sectarian tension and search for means to end the presidential deadlock.

Chatah, 62, was assassinated on Dec. 27, 2013, when his convoy passed by a car rigged with explosives parked in the heart of Downtown Beirut. Seven other people were killed in the attack, which Hariri had implicitly blamed Hezbollah for.

In his statement Saturday, Hariri, the head of the Future Movement, said Chatah’s killing was a loss for the party and for himself.

“Those who took a decision to eliminate Mohammad Chatah recognize today that they attacked an irreplaceable target,” Hariri said.

“Eliminating Chatah from the political circle of the Future Movement leadership was a painful blow to me personally and created a vacuum in our political work.”

Hariri said that he had never thought Chatah could be a target of assassination, which the former prime minister described as part of a series of crimes “to eliminate symbols of moderation and national thinking and drag Lebanon further into division and sectarian strife.”

“Chatah is a name that equals moderation, complements moderation and an idea that instilled in our minds the responsibility to protect Lebanon. Therefore, he is always present in all of us.”