Jumblat Says Doesn't Want to Join 'Anti-Hizbullah Front'

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has announced that he does not want to be part of an “anti-Hizbullah front.”

“I don’t want to join an anti-Hizbullah political front. My (recent) stance was spontaneous and a description of a harsh reality. We are suffocating and we had to scream,” Jumblat said in an interview with French-language daily L’Orient-Le Jour.

Asked about the possibility of joining such a front, Jumblat said: “I’ve had enough of fronts.”

“I’m not anyone’s man and no one can take me for granted,” Jumblat added.

“Some of my stances are similar to Hizbullah’s stances, and this suits the party, but when they oppose its interests, you become in its crosshairs,” the PSP leader lamented.

As for Lebanon’s ties with the Gulf countries, Jumblat said: “It is unacceptable to provoke them and push them to isolate us, because this is against the national interest.”

“The policies that contradict with the national interest have gone too far,” he added.

Commenting on the upcoming parliamentary elections, Jumblat revealed that he will ally with the Lebanese Forces in Chouf and Aley because there is not a single “common denominator” with the Free Patriotic Movement.

As for the relation with ex-PM Saad Hariri, the PSP leader emphasized that the relation with him is “historic” and cannot be “abandoned.”

“It is true that we have political differences with Saad Hariri, but he and his political dynasty have a special place in my heart. I have criticized his management of certain files, but this does not mean that our strategic relation must be damaged as a result of that,” Jumblat added.

The PSP leader also said that he sees “no reason for optimism in Lebanon or the region,” warning that Lebanon “is losing its identity and is threatened with vanishing.”