Druze leader blasts former allies after being carved out of opposition meeting

Cilina Nasser
Daily Star staff

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt struck a blow to the Christian opposition on Tuesday by switching his allegiance from the Qornet Shehwan Gathering to President Emile Lahoud.
“More than at any other time, we have to rally behind the national patriotic stand of President Emile Lahoud regardless of any personal or other consideration,” Jumblatt said during a ceremony held on the 13th anniversary of the death of Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini at the Iranian Embassy in Bir Hassan.
Jumblatt’s statements came a day after he was excluded from a meeting for the opposition at the National Liberal Party headquarters in Sodeco.
“With (Lahoud), we will preserve democracy and freedoms; with him, we will deepen dialogue for the sake of Lebanese national unity and the special Lebanese-Syrian relationship,” said Jumblatt, who is also a Chouf MP.
A vehement critic of the regime’s security apparatus, the Druze leader added: “With (Lahoud), we will preserve national and pan-Arab security”
“More than any other time, we have the duty to embrace the resistance and to protect and defend it,” he said, addressing the approximately 700 people in attendance.
Criticizing anti-Syrian groups, Jumblatt considered those refusing a relationship with Damascus to be affected by the “great quantity of historical fallacies spread by some missionaries who has graduated a generation of bigoted ignoramuses,” referring to missionaries that began establishing schools in Mount Lebanon during the Ottoman era.
Considering Lebanon and Syria’s security to be linked, Jumblatt said “Syrian(s) have the right to their strategic security here and in securing (Lebanon’s) system and national unity,” he said.
“I think that this is something that is agreed on nationally in Lebanon, unless if certain circles want to go back to the atmosphere prevalent during the Baghdad Pact or the May 17 Agreement under the slogan of the free and independent Lebanese decision,” Jumblatt added, referring to a British-US sponsored agreement in 1956 between Turkey, Jordan and Iraq aimed to confronting the influence of the Soviet Union, and the Israeli-sponsored agreement with Lebanon in 1983 respectively.
Jumblatt considered the last Syrian redeployment here that took place from late March until early April to be in accordance with the Taif Accord.
“The Taif Accord is very clear and the Syrian-Lebanese agreements might bear certain errors on the levels of agriculture and trade … this is the responsibility of the two states, the Higher (Lebanese-Syrian) Council and other official departments,” he said.
Jumblatt warned that the Syrian military presence here was “under threat,” which was why, he continued, it was “important to have a strategic Syrian localization here in spite of the disparity in the capabilities between Syria and Israel.”
He added: “Do I have to remind (you) of the heroic epics carried out in Khalde, Beirut and Nabaa Safa in 1982,” in reference to the Israeli invasion that was confronted by Syrian troops who fought alongside Palestinian and Lebanese groups.
Jumblatt ended his speech by saying, “Long live the Lebanese-Syrian-Islamic-Iranian wide cohesion.”
For his part, Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addressed regional issues, stressing that resistance remained a viable option in the struggle against Israel.
“They used to say you won’t achieve your goals, which are unrealistic,” Nasrallah said, referring to detractors of Hizbullah’s strategy of resistance to Israeli occupation.
“Now, the same thing is being said about the intifada in Palestine: ‘Palestinian people, your goal is unrealistic ­ can you kick out Israel, even from the (territories occupied in) 1967?” he said.
“But experience has shown the Palestinians that their goal can be realized,” he said.

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