Jumblat Okay with Meeting Nasrallah, Won”t Apologize to Syria
Druze leader Walid Jumblat said he did not mind meeting Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah if the Shiite party”s chief expressed readiness for such talks.
"I am waiting for the meeting between Sheikh Saad Hariri and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. After that, If the party saw that a meeting with me is useful, then I wouldn”t mind," Jumblat told As Safir daily in an interview published Thursday.
Asked if doors were not closed for such a meeting, Jumblat said: "In politics there is nothing closed."
The leader of the Progressive Socialist Party denied that he would soon hold talks with Head of the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc MP Mohammed Raad at Minister Talal Arslan”s residence.
"We don”t want to discuss issues that we would later talk about at the national dialogue table," Jumblat said.
When asked why he criticized a visit to Iran by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, Jumblat said: "I want Lebanon to stay out of axes whether be it Western or Eastern."
He said he was ready for dialogue with Iran if the Islamic Republic made the initiative. But the agenda according to Jumblat should include "the truce with Israel, implementation of the Taef Accord, the defense strategy, the excellent relations with Syria and if they (Iranians) wished to provide aid then this should happen through the Lebanese state."
Jumblat, however, refused to apologize to the Assad regime.
"I know the Syrian regime very well since the days of (former President) Hafez Assad…They want me to apologize and this is out of the question," Jumblat told As Safir.
But he vowed not to interfere in Syria”s internal affairs, saying: "Let the Syrian people decide the type of leadership that suits them."
When asked if he made a mistake when he called for toppling the Syrian regime, Jumblat said: "I wasn”t mistaken and I am not regretful. But the international community preferred this regime" because it doesn”t want chaos in Syria.
"This is not the first time and it won”t be the last that democratic regimes prefer dictatorships," he added.
He said the March 14 alliance asked the help of the West in the issue of the international tribunal only.
"When the Syrian army evacuated Lebanon, it wasn”t the Americans or the French who drove it out. It was the Lebanese people through the massive March 14 demonstration," Jumblat told his interviewer.
The PSP leader said the Americans succeeded only in helping to establish the international tribunal that would try ex-Premier Rafik Hariri”s suspected assassins.
"If the new U.S. administration does not make calculations, we would head to total economic and political chaos. I foresee chaos in Afghanistan and Pakistan and maybe in Iraq," he said.
When asked if the U.S. was taking advantage of the March 14 forces to achieve its own interests, Jumblat said: "Our only demand was the court and I believe we finally got it."
About the upcoming parliamentary elections, Jumblat said that all March 14 forces should enter into an alliance away from party politics.
He told As Safir that he would deal with the opposition based on dialogue and participation if the March 14 coalition wins the elections.
Asked if the alliance would grant the opposition again veto power in the new cabinet, Jumblat said: "In a democratic system, there is nothing called one-third (veto power). Sensitive and strategic issues such as Hizbullah”s weapons" should be dealt with through dialogue even if there was no Hizbullah minister in the government.