Jumblat Confirms Alliance with Miqati, Says he Wants a United Syria

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat reiterated on Sunday that he remains allied with Premier Najib Miqati and said he is keen on seeing Syria united.

During a gathering at the Shouaifat Municipality called for by the head of the Lebanese Democratic Party, Talal Arslan, Jumblat said: “I might have a (different) viewpoint in political affairs and this is legal.”

“We are not asked to have the same point of view and a single opinion,” he added.

Arslan had organized the event to contain the repercussions of the killing of 19-year-old Ali Sheet earlier in the month. The young man died after a bank guard in the area of Kouh al-Blata in Shouaifat opened fire on him when he was trying to snatch a woman’s handbag.

Angry residents later blocked roads to protest the killing.

Jumblat said that Lebanese politicians disagree on the situation in Syria, but stressed: “All what I, Talal and (Hizbullah chief) Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah care for is for Syria to stay united and for the ghost of civil war to stay far.”

“Syria should be a pluralist democracy. That’s my point of view because our security is linked to Syria and vice versa,” he added.

On Hizbullah’s arms, Jumblat stressed that agreement had been reached after the Taef accord to keep the weapons with the resistance until the liberation of all occupied Lebanese territories.

Arslan, who also talked during the event, said: “I have my own viewpoint while Walid Bek has another point of view … as for Syria I am not ashamed of my friendship with Assad.”

The conferees issued a statement stressing “the importance of keeping the situation calm amid the circumstances that Lebanon and the region are going through.”

They called for “unity to confront the developments no matter how different the political viewpoints were.”

The statement also stressed the necessity of consolidating the army and the security forces to handle any emergency.