Jumblat Says Neither March 8 nor March 14 Can Make Changes in Syria

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat advised both the March 8 coalition and the March 14 opposition to steer themselves clear of the Syrian crisis, saying local Lebanese parties won’t be able to change anything in the Syrian crisis.

In an interview with pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat published Saturday, Jumblat said: “No matter what they thought, they won’t be able to change a thing in Syria.”

“I don’t think that any local party can do anything given that the dialogue on Syria’s future is in the hands of major powers,” he said about the Hizbullah-led March 8 alliance that backs Syrian President Bashar Assad and the March 14 forces that call for toppling the regime.

“It would be very stupid for the local parties no matter what their size is to interfere,” in the Syrian upheaval that erupted following Assad’s violent crackdown on protestors in March last year, he said.

“We only interfere in the humanitarian issue by helping Syrian refugees,” Jumblat told his interviewer.

Asked as to how he keeps good ties with Hizbullah at a time he considers that Assad “lives in another world,” the PSP chief said: “The party represents 50 to 60 percent of Shiites in Lebanon and the approach with the Shiites and the party should be on the basis that the arms owned by the resistance … should one day be embraced by the state.”

Jumblat described the statements made by the March 14 officials that there would be no dialogue in the presence of such arms as “boring.”

“This worsens the crisis and is useless,” he stressed.

Opposition officials have also claimed that Hizbullah’s arms led to the proliferation of weapons in Lebanese cities and towns.

“This leads to a dead end,” Jumblat said. “There is no solution but dialogue and the consolidation of institutions.”

Asked if he approves the March 14 request for the formation of a neutral salvation government, Jumblat, who is a centrist, told Asharq al-Awsat that he backs a national unity cabinet.