‘Optimistic’ Jumblat Makes Final Clarification to Hizbullah, Amal on Stance from Electricity Project

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has said he made the “final clarification” to Hizbullah and Amal movement that his remarks on an electricity project have no political motives.

In remarks to As Safir daily published Monday, Jumblat said that a meeting held at the residence of General Security Department chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim the day before was “excellent.”

The meeting that he held along with several PSP officials with MP Mohammed Raad, Hussein Khalil and Wafiq Safa from Hizbullah and Amal’s MP Hani Qobaissi and Ahmed Baalbaki was part of “final clarifications made on the technical and administrative aspect” of his stance from the electricity project.

Jumblat and his ministers are insisting on the formation of a technical committee to oversee the allocation of $1.2 billion funds to Energy Minister Jebran Bassil to generate 700 Megawatts of electricity. But Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and his son-in-law Bassil, who have proposed the project, are insisting on giving the minister the sole authority on the spending of the funds.

“I reiterated in the presence of Hizbullah and Amal representatives that our stance has no political motive,” Jumblat told As Safir following the meeting.

He said he was “optimistic with the course that the electricity project is taking” without giving further details.

Also in remarks to An Nahar newspaper, Jumblat denied there were differences between him and Aoun. “From the start, there is no dispute unlike what it is being said.”

Eventually, the cabinet would have the final say on the project, he said.

The sources of the conferees didn’t express the same optimistic point of view. They said the PSP, Hizbullah and Amal failed to reach agreement on how to fund the project because the government doesn’t have the capacity to cover all its expenses.

The sources told As Safir daily, however, that the officials agreed on a roadmap on the role that the cabinet would play in the implementation of the project and the formation of an electricity regulatory authority.