Jumblat Advises Hizbullah to Allow STL Funding, Defend Suspects in Court
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Thursday advised Hizbullah to allow Premier Najib Miqati’s government to pay Lebanon’s annual 49% share of funds to the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
“We’ve heard Hizbullah describing the suspects (in the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri) as ‘sacred’, but they must understand that those who were martyred, starting from Rafik Hariri all the way to (slain MP) Antoine Ghanem … are also ‘sacred’,” Jumblat said in an interview on Al-Arabiya television.
“Why don’t they go defend themselves in court?” Jumblat suggested, warning that “boycotting the tribunal would harm Lebanon.”
Addressing the crisis in neighboring Syria, Jumblat said he was “against using Lebanon against Syria and vice versa.”
“We respect the Syrian security forces, but they also have to respect the Lebanese security forces,” Jumblat said when asked about recent controversy on the abduction of Syrian dissidents in Lebanon.
“I’m with security and military coordination between Lebanon and Syria, but it should have regulations,” Jumblat stressed.
He called for a “settlement” between President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and its opponents, but underlined “the need to prevent foreign intervention.”
“The Syrian people is capable of reaching a new Syria. I’m with a political settlement in Syria and it should be implemented in an appropriate manner,” the Druze leader added.
He also said he was not opposed to “the intervention of some influential powers such as Turkey and Iran in Syria should the Arab League deem that as necessary to stop the bloodshed.”
On the other hand, he urged Assad to “accept the Arab League’s initiative” to end the violence.
“We’re not betting on the fall of the Syrian regime, but rather on reforms that would stop the bloodshed. I urge the Lebanese parties to sit together and engage in dialogue over how to protect Syria and I believe that Hizbullah will benefit the most in that case,” Jumblat noted.
Asked about his relation with former premier Saad Hariri, Jumblat said: “We exchange holiday greetings and we are former allies. We did not part because of a dispute over the principle of the tribunal, but rather over regional alliances and the fear of civil strife.”
“Hariri and I should both help Syria exit its crisis by endorsing the Arab League’s paper,” he called on his former ally.
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