Jumblat Slams Eid, Tripoli Leaders over Clashes, Says Hizbullah Has Not Won in Syria
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Sunday lashed out at Arab Democratic Party leader Rifaat Eid and Tripoli's politicians over the recurrent clashes in the northern city, noting that Hizbullah did not achieve a victory in Syria with Yabrud's capture.
“Everyone is in a dilemma in Tripoli ... I advise Rifaat Eid not to be reckless,” Jumblat said during an interview on al-Jadeed television.
“Rifaat Eid is transgressing against Tripoli and his own sect … He is taking his sect to destruction,” he added.
But the PSP leader also criticized Tripoli's ministers and politicians, accusing them of preventing the army from deploying in the Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood.
“The army must enter into both Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh but Tripoli's ministers must allow the army to enter Bab al-Tabbaneh. Tripoli's politicians must stop providing cover for the leaders of fighting frontiers,” said Jumblat.
He called on Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, who hails from Tripoli, to issue judicial warrants over the clashes in Tripoli, urging Hizbullah to “lift the political cover off Rifaat Eid.”
Commenting on Hizbullah's military intervention in Syria, Jumblat said: “I tell Hizbullah that it has concerns that are bigger than (Arab Movement Party leader) Shaker al-Berjawi and Rifaat Eid and I don't believe that it has won in Syria.”
“Hizbullah has drowned in the Syrian mud and it would be mistaken to think that it triumphed after what happened in Yabrud,” he said.
“The decision of Hizbullah's withdrawal from Syria is an Iranian decision and the policy of the Resistance Brigades has no value,” he noted.
But he underlined that he is “not against the resistance” but rather with “correcting the aim of its rifle.”
Asked whether President Bashar Assad's regime was winning the war in Syria, Jumblat said “no one can triumph by displacing millions of Syrians and destroying cities.”
“Bashar Assad has destroyed his army and taken his country to the unknown and top chiefs of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant were in his prisons,” Jumblat noted.
Commenting on the deadly bombings that have rocked Lebanon, the PSP leader said: “Terrorism exists and it has no religion or race. Global terrorism had decided to turn Lebanon into one of its arenas and I don't share the viewpoint that Hizbullah's entry into Syria is the reason behind the presence of terrorists.”
“It would have been possible to avoid everything that happened through making reforms, but Assad said he was fighting takfiris, although terrorism did not exist at the beginning of the crisis,” said Jumblat.
“There won't be an international settlement in Syria, especially after the cold war that started in Crimea. The Americans are also to blame for Syria's destruction because they assigned the revolution to countries that have nothing to do with democracy,” Jumblat pointed out.
He said there is no solution in the horizon for the Syrian crisis, “unless the big players agree and find a formula allowing Assad's exit from Syria.”
Jumblat accused the Syrian regime of killing “top Alawite officials, including Asef Shawkat and Ghazi Kanaan, for the sake of the single-party system.”
Asked about the upcoming presidential election in Lebanon, Jumblat said: “From now until May 15, I do not want to tackle the issue of the presidential vote.”
But he noted that a president who would “manage the crisis” must be elected.
Commenting on President Michel Suleiman's call for national dialogue, Jumblat emphasized that “dialogue is beneficial.”
However, he called for avoiding debate over “the arms of the resistance” and called for focusing on “the issue of weapons that are spread across cities and (Palestinian refugee) camps.”
“Hizbullah, al-Mustaqbal movement and all of us are in a dilemma and everyone must heed the call for national dialogue,” he urged.
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