Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.
, bringing together the entire political spectrum except for the Christian Phalangist party that rejected the portfolio it was offered.
"This is a government of entente," Hariri said of the new line-up formed six weeks after the election of President
Michel Aoun...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
New portfolios include an anti-corruption post and, for the first time, a minister of state for women’s affairs.
Hariri said the Phalangist party had been offered a minister of state post but had turned it down.
The new government will have "at the top of its list of priorities to preserve security against the fires ravaging our region," Hariri told news hounds.
He stressed that the government would act to "preserve our country from the negative consequences of the Syrian crisis".
On November 3, former premier Hariri was nominated to form Leb’s next government, but the process was seen as likely to be hampered by deep differences with the powerful Hezbollah movement.
Hariri, 46, is anti-Syria and a fierce opponent of Leb’s influential Shiite Hezbollah, members of which have been accused by an international court of involvement in his father’s 2005 liquidation.
But he was forced to throw his support behind Aoun, their candidate for the presidency, in order to secure his return to power as premier.
Hariri’s government will have two ministers from Hezbollah.
His nomination and Aoun’s election after a two-year vacuum have raised hopes that Leb can begin tackling challenges including a stagnant economy, a moribund political class and the influx of more than a million Syrian refugees.
Hariri also announced the establishment of a state secretariat for refugees, and called on the international community "to take responsibility for helping our country bear the burden".