Jumblat: Aoun Has No Right to Say We're Going to Hell

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Monday voiced criticism in all directions in connection with the ongoing deadlock in the cabinet formation process.

“President Michel Aoun has no right to say that we’re going to hell. I support a settlement and when the storm lashes we must bow,” Jumblat said in an interview with Lebanon’s MTV.

Revealing that he had called ex-PM Saad Hariri from Paris during his visit last week, Jumblat said the talks with the former premier were not positive.

He also disclosed that Speaker Nabih Berri has told him that he is facing pressures to “keep the finance ministerial portfolio with the Shiite sect.”

“Neither America nor Iran wants a government” in Lebanon and “the U.S. sanctions have not weakened Hizbullah but rather Lebanon,” the PSP leader added.

Warning that the French initiative for Lebanon is the “last chance,” Jumblat said Prime Minister-designate Mustafa Adib must “communicate with the parties,” while noting that “it seems that someone is telling him not to talk to anyone.”

“I tell Iran and its representatives that they are blocking the last chance to save the country,” the PSP leader, referring to Tehran and Hizbullah.

As for the sectarian bickering related to the row over the finance portfolio, Jumblat addressed the Higher Islamic Shiite Council and Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi by saying that “it is not the appropriate time to call for changing the Taef Accord.”

Earlier in the day, Aoun had warned that the crisis-hit country could be going to "hell" if a new government was not formed, suggesting it would require a "miracle" for that to happen at this point.

The stark warning comes as the country struggles to contain a spiraling economic and financial crisis that threatens to nose-dive further in the coming weeks, as well as concerns of unrest in the fragile country also witnessing a surge in coronavirus cases and deaths.