Hariri praises March 14 renewal

Lebanon’s Former Prime Minister and the head of the Future Movement MP Saad Hariri paid tribute Wednesday to the youth who launched the “Cedar Revolution” seven years ago and vowed that Lebanon would never again be subservient to Syria. “As I extend my greetings to every Lebanese who took part in the March 14 uprising, I particularly salute the thousands of young men and women who have transformed the heart of Beirut into a vibrant arena for freedom,” Hariri said in a statement. Hariri, who leads the March 14 coalition, also said that “after March 14, the Lebanese decided to put an end to the foreign tutelage over their country and they would certainly not allow the Lebanese Republic to fall under any new form of tutelage, whether direct or indirect.” In his statement, which came just hours before the March 14 coalition commemorated the seventh anniversary of what it describes as the “Cedar Revolution,” which helped bring an end to the Syrian Army’s presence in Lebanon in 2005, Hariri paid tribute to the “souls of the martyrs who gave their lives for the freedom of Lebanon and its people, and imprinted  this day in the consciousness of the Lebanese people and making it a shining beacon for the Arab Spring.”