Reconciliation Occurred On March 14 2005
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat said on Sunday that the most important reconciliation had occurred when Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir visited the Mountain in 2000 and the largest reconciliation had occurred among the Lebanese people on March 14, 2005.
Speaking during a meeting of his party’s General Assembly, Jumblat said, “When they assassinated Kamal Jumblat, they attempted to assassinate the Progressive Socialist Party.”
“Nothing changed after 1977 [Kamal Jumblat’s assassination] and nothing will change. I will remain my father’s son,” he said, adding that his father had been assassinated because his patriotism had frightened some regimes.
Jumblat said that his father had been one of the first people to support Palestinian rights, adding that numerous foreign policies had failed to solve the Palestinian problem. He also said that Syria had “destroyed the independence of Palestinian decision-making, for which Kamal Jumblat and Yasser Arafat died.”
“The Syrian regime will remain the sole danger to the independence movement in Lebanon and Palestine,” said Jumblat, adding that he called on all parties to work harder as, despite many achievements, the road to independence, freedom and sovereignty remained long.
He added that suggesting the Syria regime would change its behavior was “silly” and warned that the 2009 parliamentary elections would be fateful.
“If we win, we will accomplish independence and, if not, Syrian intervention will return to Lebanon,” Jumblat warned, adding that Lebanon was still beginning its path to stability and independence.
Jumblat said the PSP “always makes efforts to forge improvements and developments.” He called on the party’s organizational session to confront challenges, “especially after the Syrian regime succeeded in putting an end to its isolation on the international level and many presidents now will rush to visit Damascus.”
He also noted that despite facing numerous difficulties, the PSP’s Al-Anbaa newspaper was trying to improve.