Jumblat: Syrian Regime as Powerful as it Has Ever Been in Lebanon
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat noted that some Lebanese security agencies are receiving order from the Syrian regime, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.
He told the daily: “The Syrian regime is as powerful as it ever was in Lebanon.”
He refuted claims that the regime is too caught up in its own local affairs to concern itself with Lebanon.
On the performance of the security agencies, the MP highlighted the lack of coordination between the various agencies, noting that “most of them have non-Lebanese allegiances.”
Jumblat also criticized the army intelligence, urging it to refrain from meddling in political affairs.
“The command council of the Internal Security Forces is almost paralyzed and some officials’ security entourage is the size of an army,” he added
“The security of the state is in the hands of an officer whose superior takes him every now and then to Damascus,” remarked Jumblat.
“I don’t know who he visits there,” he added.
The Druze chief stressed the importance of the rise of the state, “not people and parties.”
This step should then be followed with the establishment of a joint operations room that ensures the coordination of work by the various security agencies, he continued.
Asked if Lebanon is vulnerable on the security level, Jumblat replied: “The situation will improve when they decide that they are loyal to state and if they believe in the state.”
“When they are affiliated to foreign powers however, we fear that they will carry out operations at the expense of Lebanon’s security, stability, and dignity,” he warned.
Commenting on the March 14 camp’s decision to suspend its participation in the national dialogue, the MP said: “They have a legitimate excuse. We want the minimum amount of reassurances to feel safe about our country.”
The camp suspended its participation following the failure to hand the complete telecom data in the assassination attempts against MP Butros Harb and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea.
Media reports over the weekend have since said that part of the data has been handed over to the security forces, with the rest set to be delivered in the upcoming hours.
Jumblat praised President Michel Suleiman’s efforts to resume the national dialogue, urging the other camp to vow that “the decision of war and peace will one day lie in the hands of the states.”
“The slogan of the army, people, and resistance has proven its value, but it is also causing the downfall of the state in all regions, even Beirut’s southern suburbs,” he noted.
“The president was clear when he said that the talks are aimed at devising a defense strategy for Lebanon against Israel. He did not speak of defending Iran,” stated the MP.
“There is no available substitute to the current government,” he added.
The PSP leader added that contacts between him and Hizbullah have not been severed, but they are in constant communication, mostly through the party’s security official Wafiq Safa.
He voiced his disagreement with Hizbullah’s assertions that the dialogue can address its weapons possession only after the liberation of the Shebaa Farms from Israeli occupation.
“The land can be liberated after we prove that it is Lebanese and once the border is demarcated,” stressed Jumblat.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had stated that the arms will only be discussed after the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, continued Jumblat.
“At the end of the July 2006 war, he was an Arab and Islamic leader, so why is he insisting on changing his image?” he wondered.
“Why doesn’t he give the Lebanese some hope that the state can be built?” he asked.
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