Jumblat Urges Regional System Involving Turkey, Iran to 'Fight Terrorism'

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Monday stressed the importance of setting up a new regional system, “which includes Turkey and Iran,” to replace the Arab League and fight terrorism, calling against excluding Russia from any solutions in Syria.

“The Arab world will not be able to confront this challenge alone, and it's about time we reconsidered the concept of the Arab League and worked on establishing a new regional system, through expanding the league to include Turkey and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said Jumblat in his weekly article in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa newspaper.

He also called for "coordination with these two major regional poles to face the uncontrolled terrorists in Iraq, Syria and other places.”

Regarding the plan that the U.S. president will announce on Wednesday on confronting the Islamic State group, Jumblat said he believes that “excluding Iran in advance from any international efforts in this context has no meaning and it will delay achieving positive results in the war against the terrorists.”

Concerning the Syrian crisis, he added: “Any idea of excluding Russia from the solution in Syria is absurd.”

However, at the same time Jumblat added, “the importance of changing the regime and getting rid of its figures who murdered and repressed, and of going back to the first Arab initiative that stipulated a transitional government and purifying the army from soldiers who committed murders and crimes.”

He added that under any settlement, “it is possible to accommodate the militias that include Syrians in their ranks, similar to what happened after the Lebanese war, in order to maintain the institutions, topped by the army, to protect the unity of Syria.”

Concerning Lebanon, Jumblat saluted “the martyrs of the Lebanese army, who every time perform new heroic acts to protect Lebanon and its sovereignty and stability.”

He added: “I salute the families of (Lebanon's) Qalamoun that performed a memorial service to commemorate the martyrs of the army and this solidarity stance is very important.”

“I salute the family of the martyr Abbas Medlej, and his father in particular, that showed extreme calmness and took a national position rising above all his pain and wounds.”

Medlej, who was executed Saturday by the Islamic State group, is the second captive army soldier to be murdered in the same gruesome fashion at the hands of the ruthless organization.

Eight troops remain in the custody of the group after they were abducted during deadly clashes with the Lebanese army in the Bekaa town of Arsal in early August. The Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front for its part is holding 18 troops and policemen who were kidnapped during the same battle.

Z.A.

Y.R.