New allegations have surfaced regarding the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, with Majd Jadaan, a former insider of the Syrian regime, directly implicating Hezbollah and the Assad family.

Jadaan, the sister-in-law of Maher al-Assad, Syria’s powerful military commander and brother of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, made the revelations in an interview with Al Arabiya. 

"I am absolutely convinced that Hezbollah and the Assad family were behind the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri," Jadaan stated.

Jadaan fled Syria in 2008 following a dispute with the regime and comes from a family with a history of opposition—her father, Wafiq Jadaan, was a vocal critic of Hafez al-Assad’s rule during the 1980s.

She recounted an incident just months before Hariri’s assassination, revealing how her attempts to mediate a meeting between the former Lebanese leader and the Assad brothers were rebuffed.

"Three months before Hariri’s assassination, mutual friends asked me to request a meeting between him and Maher and Bashar," she said. "Maher’s response was: ‘Who is he for me to meet him?’”

Jadaan described Hariri’s killing as a "dangerous turning point within Syria," emphasizing that the regime actively spread disinformation while being directly responsible for the assassination.

Hariri was assassinated in a massive bombing in downtown Beirut on February 14, 2005, an attack that killed 21 others and wounded over 200 people. The assassination triggered mass protests in Lebanon, ultimately leading to the withdrawal of Syrian forces after nearly three decades of military presence in the country.

A United Nations-backed tribunal later found a Hezbollah operative guilty in absentia, but stopped short of directly implicating the Syrian leadership. However, suspicions about Assad’s involvement have persisted, with critics arguing that the assassination served to eliminate a key opponent to Syrian dominance in Lebanon.

Jadaan’s allegations add to long-standing claims that Syria and its allies orchestrated Hariri’s assassination. While the Syrian regime has repeatedly denied involvement, the timing and political fallout of the attack continue to fuel speculation.