Jumblat Meets with Hizbullah in Sunday”s Shweifat Reconciliation
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat and Lebanese Democratic Party chief Talal Arslan will hold on Sunday a reconciliation event in Shweifat, which had witnessed on-again-off-again tension since the killing of Arslan supporter Akram Arbid in 1996.
Arbid was allegedly beaten by PSP members while he was accompanying a candidate in the 1996 parliamentary elections.
The event will help reduce tension in Shweifat following Arbid”s death and the May 7, 2008 events.
Hizbullah will also participate in the gathering, As Safir newspaper reported Saturday.
Jumblat will reportedly make a "very positive" speech that would come in reaction to Hizbullah Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem”s recent statement in which he praised the Druze leader”s stances.
Minister Arslan also told As Safir that the reconciliation is important and necessary, stressing that "sectarian tension in the Mountains or the southern suburbs or between them or anywhere else in Lebanon is prohibited."