Lebanon’s boom time in 1997 came about as windfall from the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Lebanon’s boom time in 1997 came about as windfall from the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Through him and his family, the once-Paris of the Middle East, then ravaged by decades of civil war, came back to life. After his re-election to power as PM, Hariri gave Lebanon a major facelift and a much needed-shot-in-the-arm: a socio-economic, tourism jumpstart by sharing his fortunes. It made the streets of downtown Beirut glitter in the late ‘90s and at the turn of the millennium, sign that nation-building had transcended the 15-year civil war of the ‘70s.