Jumblat in Baabda Soon to Clarify Stance on Army
Democratic Gathering Leader Walid Jumblat will "soon" meet President Michel Suleiman to clarify his stance which took a hard hit at the Lebanese army command, the daily Ad Diyar said Thursday.
Jumblat placed doubts on military appointments during a recent television interview.
Ad Diyar said Suleiman”s response to Jumblat led to a tense situation, prompting the Druze leader to boycott a committee of experts tasked with studying the various proposals for a defense strategy.
Jumblat said the reason he withdrew his representative, retired Col. Sharif Fayyad, from the defense strategy committee, was because he did not want to take part in what he called "counterfeit party."
Meanwhile, Jumblat called for Arab-Iranian coordination to confront what he called the Israeli "tripartite Livni-Netanyahu-Lieberman victory."
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and hawkish ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu were locked in a battle for power on Wednesday after a photo-finish election that could send peace talks into limbo.
An overall lurch to the right has made it more likely that Netanyahu will return to the nation”s most powerful post, but Livni immediately started coalition talks, meeting on Wednesday with ultra-nationalist Avigdor Lieberman.
"The victory of the tripartite Livni-Netanyahu-Lieberman gang warns of more wars," Jumblat said in remarks published by the daily As Safir on Thursday.
"And unless a serious Arab stance is established in order to exert real pressure on the new U.S. Administration in line with the Arab peace initiative, I am afraid that the schemes of both nations (Israel and Palestine) would fall apart," Jumblat warned.
He stressed on the need to establish a "united Arab stance as well as coordination between the Arab League and Iran to confront the challenges imposed by the victory of the Israeli tripartite gang."