Jumblat: Mistakes Shouldn’t be Resolved by Committing more Mistakes

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat criticized on Saturday the sit-in launched by Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir in the southern city of Sidon, saying mistakes are not resolved by committing more blunders.

“We have agreed that the issue of arms cannot be resolved except at the dialogue table and in calm and positive atmospheres,” Jumblat said in remarks to An Nahar daily after al-Asir vowed to keep his sit-in open-ended pending a solution to non-state arms, including Hizbullah’s arsenal.

The latest security incidents and protests “target President Michel Suleiman and all the Lebanese,” he said, criticizing the attack on al-Jadeed TV and the alleged assault on the al-Manar TV team.

Several masked men set tires on fire at the entrance of al-Jadeed headquarters in Beirut’s Wata al-Msaitbe on Monday night amid reports that they were also planning to torch the building.

On Thursday, al-Manar accused the Lebanese Forces security personnel of assaulting its team that was taking suspicious photographs near LF MP Strida Geagea’s residence in Yasouh al-Malak in Keserouan district.

“It would be a mistake to go back to a new May 7,” Jumblat said about the gunbattles between Hizbullah and the supporters of ex-Premier Saad Hariri in 2008 when the powerful party's gunmen took over west Beirut following a government decision to shut down its private telecommunications network around the capital.

“Mistakes should not be resolved through (other) mistakes and let’s learn the lesson of May 7 and its negative consequences,” the PSP chief told An Nahar.

“The solution doesn’t come through blocking roads and obstructing the lives of the citizens in Sidon, the South and the rest of the regions,” Jumblat said.

“The defense strategy should be resolved in a stable atmosphere away from tension and sectarianism,” he stressed.