Jumblat Predicts Return of Syrian Hegemony, Says New President 'Will Come on Persian Carpet'

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat posted on Wednesday a number of humorous tweets to comment on the ongoing presidential vacuum in the country and Iran's alleged role in the issue, while also saying that Syria will restore its political hegemony over Lebanon.

He said: “It looks that our future president will come on a Persian carpet.”

“Can the Lebanese MPs decide. I doubt. We are like sitting ducks and somebody else decides,” he tweeted in English.

“Everything now is black. The powers of darkness, sorry enlightenment, are not in a hurry,” he continued.

“Hence, let us guess naively about our future beloved president and praise the merciful all powerful guide forever,” Jumblat tweeted.

Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor.

Ongoing disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps over a compromise candidate have thwarted the polls.

Jumblat has in recent weeks made a number of caustic remarks against Iran and its influence over Lebanon through its ally Hizbullah.

He accused it on Saturday of obstructing the presidential elections, asking: “If Iran was indeed not hindering the elections, then any citizen has the right to ask what are the real reasons for the lack of quorum at electoral sessions?”

Earlier on Wednesday, Jumblat predicted that “direct Syrian hegemony will once again return to Lebanon.”

This will not include a return of Syria troops, he told Sky News Arabia.

“Lebanon could become a new district of a new Syria, which is being pushed for by the Syrian-Iranian axis,” he stated.

This new Syria stretches from Daraa to Tartous and Latakia, including Lebanon, he explained.

Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon in 2005 after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut earlier that year.

They had initially entered Lebanon in 1976 during the civil war that was raging in the country.

Hariri was killed in a massive car bomb in Beirut that was widely blamed by the Lebanese on Syria at a time when it wielded its political and security influence over the country.

M.T.

Y.R.