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BEIRUT: Lebanon has decided to rebaptise a thoroughfare named after former Syrian president Hafez Assad in favor of late Lebanese musician and playwright Ziad Rahbani, a move many welcomed on Wednesday.
The decision marks the end of an era and a rupture with the authoritarian rule of former Syrian leaders Hafez Assad and his son Bashar — close allies of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group — who from Damascus held Lebanon in a stranglehold for almost three decades.
Islamist forces ousted Bashar Assad in December, ending five decades of one-family rule, further weakening Hezbollah after a war with Israel and helping to change the balance of power in Lebanon.
“Hafez Assad into the dustbin of history, Ziad Rahbani is the name of the airport road forever!” independent lawmaker Mark Daou who opposes Hezbollah wrote on X.
The government on Tuesday announced the renaming of the avenue, which runs to the international airport through south Beirut, where Hezbollah enjoys strong support.
Lebanese actor Ziad Itani welcomed the move, telling AFP that the former Syrian leader was associated with “dark periods in Lebanese history, marked by massacres, abuses and assassinations.”
The Syrian army entered Lebanon in 1976 as part of an Arab force that was supposed to put an end to the country’s civil war which began a year earlier.
Troops only withdrew in 2005 under enormous pressure after the assassination of Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafic Hariri, which was widely blamed on Syria and Hezbollah.
The Lebanese army dismantled a number of monuments paying homage to the Assad family following the pullout.
The government announced the street’s name change as it said it had tasked the army with developing a plan to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year, an unprecedented step since civil war factions gave up their weapons decades ago.
The road’s renaming “is the decision that made me the happiest,” said Hassan Roumani near the avenue.
“Each time I passed along the Assad road, I felt like Hafez Assad and the Syrian army were still in Lebanon. Now psychologically I feel relieved — that period is over, and for the best,” he told AFP.
Not all welcomed the renaming however, particularly Hezbollah supporters.
Faysal Abdelsater, an analyst close to the Iran-backed group, said the move was “the result of political malice” and urged the local council to reject it.
Rahbani, son of iconic singer Fairuz, died last month aged 69 after a decades-long career that revolutionized the country’s artistic scene.

ROME: Judges have requested permission from Italy’s parliament to bring proceedings against two government ministers over the release of a Libyan wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), reports said Wednesday.
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio is accused of failing to perform his official duties and also, alongside Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, of aiding and abetting Osama Almasri Najim’s return to Libya.
Najim, head of Libya’s judicial police, was arrested in the northern Italian city of Turin on January 19 on an ICC warrant, only to be released by Rome’s Court of Appeal two days later and immediately flown to Tripoli on an Italian air force plane.
He is accused of charges including murder, rape and torture relating to his management of Tripoli’s Mitiga detention center, and his release sparked a major political row in Italy.
Allegations that Meloni and her ministers acted improperly have been under consideration by a special court that deals with ministerial cases.
Meloni revealed on Monday she had been cleared of any wrongdoing.
But the court has now requested permission from parliament’s Chamber of Deputies to bring a case against her ministers — although this will almost certainly be denied, as Meloni’s coalition government has a majority.
According to Italian news agencies, Nordio is accused of failing to comply with ICC requests over the arrest of Najim, and effectively standing by when he could have intervened to keep the Libyan in prison.
Piantedosi and under-secretary Alfredo Mantovano, who is responsible for the intelligence service, are both also accused of aiding and abetting Najim’s release, and also of complicit embezzlement.
Piantedosi ordered the Libyan’s expulsion from Italy and Mantovano ordered the use of a state plane to send him home, despite, like Nordio, being fully aware of the requests for cooperation from the ICC, according to the court.
Meloni on Monday said the judges had cleared her, making what she called the “absurd” conclusion that she was not informed about the decisions on Najim.
She defended the government’s actions, saying they were entirely focused on “protecting the safety of Italians.”
Nordio has previously said the ICC warrant was badly drafted, while Piantedosi claimed that once Najim had been released from prison he was too dangerous to remain in Italy.
Piantedosi also denied allegations by some opposition politicians that the suspect was sent home to avoid jeopardizing relations with Libya.