"... Hariri was once a major US regional ally & opponent to both Hizbollah and Syria ..."

They 'agreed' to back Hezbollah ... The National/ here

"... the meeting was designed to “co-ordinate policy” ahead of Mr Hariri’s trip to the United States, expected to take place on Monday.

.... Mr Hariri was once a major US regional ally (like yesterday) and opponent to both Hizbollah and Syria’s role in Lebanon, accusing Damascus of murdering his father, Rafik Hariri, a former prime minister. He has since shifted his position and is now considered a Syrian ally and supporter of Hizbollah’s right to bear arms, against US and Israeli wishes. He accused Israel of trying to foment a regional war with its recent missile allegations against Hizbollah and Damascus.... analysts said they expected the US president, Barack Obama, to try to restore Washington’s close connection with Mr Hariri and to convince him to take a harder line against Hizbollah and Damascus. Mr Hariri used to lead the anti-Syrian March 14th movement, which played a key role in forcing the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon five years ago. Such efforts would fail, they said, with the Lebanese now agreed that Israel posed the main threat to its interests and regional peace....

Although the Syrian and Lebanese leaders agreed on policy co-ordination, there was no official mention of Mr Hariri delivering a personal message from Mr Assad to his US counterpart. “Hariri will certainly take a message from Syria when he meets the US president,” said a Syrian analyst on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of his remarks. “The message will be clear: ‘Syria does not want war and is not pushing Hizbollah to war. Damascus does not want a fight over this.’ “This will explain to Obama that if he can stop Israel from starting a war, the Syrians and Hizbollah will not start one; in other words, Obama can keep the peace in the region this summer.”