Jumblat Sides with Al-Nusra Front against Assad
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Druze leader Walid Jumblat has sided with the rebel Al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group which Washington lists as a "terrorist organisation', in the Syrian conflict.
"I support Al-Nusra Front against the Syrian regime," Jumblat said in an interview with Al-Akhbar newspaper published on Wednesday.
"The Syrian people has the right to side with the devil -- except with Israel -- against the regime," said Jumblat, a fierce foe of President Bashar Assad.
"I am acting to protect the (Syrian) Druze. The Alawites (Assad's community) will go back to their mountain, but the Druze live in a sea of Sunnis," the Progressive Socialist Party leader said.
While most anti-Assad rebels -- like the majority of Syria's population -- are Sunni, the country's minorities have mostly stayed on the sidelines of the two-year-old conflict in Lebanon's neighbor.
Among them are Syria's Druze, many of who live in the south, next to the majority Sunni area of Hauran.
The Alawites, meanwhile, come from the mountains of northwest Syria.
06 March 2013, 13:52
98
Jumblat has gone "off the rails". This can only be seen as a desperate attempt to gain leverage in the adoption of the election law and the subsequent elections.
06 March 2013, 13:57
56
Jumblat is famous for his zingers and this is another one. The interest of Syria does not lie with a criminal regime or a fanatical organization. It is in a democratic, pluralistic state where the rule of law and human dignity reign supreme.
06 March 2013, 14:11
67
This statement by Jumblat may have planned as a "zinger" but will clearly be a "bomb"... a "bomb" that will blow up in his face ...
06 March 2013, 16:32
56
Ashraf elnass:
they are all a bunch of killers, thieves, drug traffickers, money launderers, kidnappers,....
in short the scum of the earth, and they dare call themselves: ashraf elnass. :)
this sinister of Syrian foreign affairs should be hung as a traitor.
06 March 2013, 20:43
21
Flamer and Mowaten, who are you two kidding? you two sound comical. Syria NEVER left lebanon mowaten! case in point- Michelle samaha among many others!
Flamer- you are threatening that syria may come back to Lebanon if FSA wins is a load of crap. They will not come back in unless we invite them back and that will NEVER HAPPEN!
06 March 2013, 16:20
95
again accusing others of being Israelis because they differ in opinion.
mowaten: you and your likes are the Israelis on this site.
06 March 2013, 16:51
55
Jumblatt (john tiler) is the classic example of how broken is Lebanese politics! A pollution of democracy when we have such a sectarian chief as a major influential politician. His only concern is his position as Druze leader... Not Lebanese leader. He doesn't give a crap about Lebanon or it's non druze people!
The funniest thing is how both sides of the coin are so eager to accept when he switches sides! I have a clip of him on bbc hardtack in 2004 defending the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Then he switches sides and is m14. Then he swapped to the other side and invited Aoun to his house. Now he allies his movement in a Syrian civil war against the ruling regime.
What an animal!
06 March 2013, 17:00
45
He supports al nusra... An al queida, extremist, terrorist group that has suicide bombed so many innocent Syrian civilians, particularly in christain areas! Only because Druze in Syria live near Syrian Sunnis? How many Syrian soldiers and civilians killed are Sunni? Most are! He is evil! His father started the Lebanese civil war by siding with Palestinians and he is his fathers son by doing the same now... Replace Palestinians with Syrians.
Why can't he just be Lebanese?
06 March 2013, 17:04
55
He sided with the Syrians after they killed his father! He sided with the Palestinians against the Lebanese army! Now he sides with the terrorists al nusra against humanity while drawing in the lebanese into a conflict we should have nothing to do with!
06 March 2013, 20:04
21
There is no "Lebanon" for him to be a leader of. Every thing you said is correct, but you're applying western norms to the ME. Here things don't make sense like that. There are huge amounts of ppl here that still think in mid-evil terms. Joumblatt said after this is done, the alawites will have to go back to their mountain, but the Druze are surrounded... Where else in the world is this part of reality?
His role is the leader of the Druze sect. The Druze are Lebanese, so that makes him a "Lebanese leader", but he is only in power because he is the Druze leader, not because he has a good fiscal policy or whatever. The Druze are considered a "kafir" religion by Sunnis, and they make up only 5% of Lebanon. Jumblatt has the survival and existence of his ppl on his shoulders...
Also, he's a huge thief. Alota things he does is purely to steal money. He's a Lebanese warlord and mafia boss. One day when the fear is taken away from the minorities ppl like him won't exist.
06 March 2013, 20:10
14
@beirut, I think you meant medieval? However, stone-age is more appropriate.
06 March 2013, 17:44
22
Do you know the name of this song or the singer??
I watching MTV Lebanon, Ma Fi Metlo - Season 2 - Episode 23
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8nuqSvKqBM
the song starts @ 8:51 ...
Have you ever heard it or know the artist name, thanks.
06 March 2013, 19:47
21
Geha, al-kafi is either a troll or like mowaten said an Israeli. He is too dedicated to posting anti-Shia comments, but his grammar shows he is educated, so we know he's not ignorant, he's just choosing to sound that way... The question is why?
06 March 2013, 13:53
72
Jumblat has gone "off the rails". This can only be seen as a desperate attempt to gain leverage in the adoption of the election law and the subsequent elections.
06 March 2013, 14:07
42
i read from jumblat's "ideas" that bashar will follow chavez soon.
06 March 2013, 14:58
55
and that ladies and gentlemen is why the Alawite dominated government and military believe they are Syrian too... the best SYRIAN man just happened to be a Alawite 90% of the time.
06 March 2013, 15:49
45
Next time read the article you post... might help you not look foolish:
The majority of the Syrian military are Sunni, but most of the military leadership are Alawites. Alawites make up 12 percent of the Syrian population but are estimated to make up 70 percent of the career soldiers in the Syrian Army.[10][21] Of the 200,000 or so career soldiers in the Syrian Army, 140,000 are Alawites.[22] A similar imbalance is seen in the officer corps where some 80 percent of the officers are Alawites. The military’s most elite divisions, the Republican Guard and the 4th Mechanized Division, which are commanded by Bashar's brother, are exclusively Alawite.
06 March 2013, 15:58
46
FT - The Syrian senior corp is dominated by alawite. You lose credibility when denying that. Most (not all) senior officers that are Sunni (like Tlass) are decoration.
06 March 2013, 20:14
13
@theresistance, yes yes shower us with possible facts to obscure the actual issue....were you around when the Assad senior bombed 7alab?
Probably not...brainwashed revisionist.
07 March 2013, 07:32
01
FT you have major issues... Sure there are some sunnis in the top leadership.. the damn article i posted says 80% of the leadership is Alawite .. so there is room for 20% BEING FROM OTHER CONFESSIONS.
I also love the fact that you call Syria a non-sectarian country and blame everyone else for seeing things in a sectarian way instead of seeing the truth and the way it really is that Assad is and always has been sectarian, appointing only his own to high command posts.. you are either a fool or blind and ignorant to call the people who point out sectarianism sectarian.
06 March 2013, 15:19
56
ft
no you are wrong once more: before iran Syrians were Syrians, but when iran came into the picture with its extremism, all countries started to implode.
Jumblat is saying it the way it is: shia cannot prevail in the arab countries, and ultimately they will be reduced to nothing. the arab countries are a real sea that cannot be stopped, if not now, in a few years.
jumblat sees the dangers of the druze in Syria siding with the regime, and he is trying to balance the odds.
06 March 2013, 15:29
53
Once again the West played its' hand wrong. Assad had no choice but to seek allies. Assad was good enough when the west wanted to torture its' prisoners ... Assad was on board in the first Gulf War.
It is the West that constantly turns against anyone that doesn't satisfy their immediate whims. Israel repeatedly violated Syria's territory and refused to negotiate on the Golan. Assad had to find an ally.
06 March 2013, 17:31
31
You may have been born yesterday but I've been around a while ... It is a documented fact that the greatest purveyors of terrorism are the USA, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Ghadafy was suppressing al Qaeda, as were Syria and Iraq. You can claim your own opinions but not your own facts ... That you print this garbage can only mean ignorance or complicity.
06 March 2013, 17:59
31
@ slash
Syria #1 exporter of terror ... the Mossad, Saudi Arabia and the CIA thank you for your ignorance ...
06 March 2013, 15:42
36
not even worth a reply coming from an extremist shia who does not want to see the reality f things, indoctrinated to execute and not to think :)
06 March 2013, 16:10
54
geha
so with your logic , right now if there was a census taken in Lebanon, 40% of the population is Shia, so all of you should go back to the mountains
06 March 2013, 16:25
15
wrong again guys trying to play the numbers :)
according to the previous elections:
- Christians were at 37%, which leaves 63% to muslims.
- 63% are divided between: sunnis, shia, druze and alawaites.
- furthermore, the numbers of the sunnis were 50 to 60K abve those of shia.
these numbers can be checked easily, so go play in iran, as you do not represent more than 30% at best, if ever.
you are the ones who should leave us alone.
06 March 2013, 15:46
14
I don't understand Jumblatt. I'm pro FSA but don't understand him... Basically, he's against Hezbollah since they fight each other in Syria. Might as well attack them here if we follow his logic. Yes, we want justice for the ongoing assassinations in Lebanon but not in this way.
06 March 2013, 15:55
13
Not true! There has always been sectarian tension but nowhere to the level we see in Lebanon. The fact that the regime is dominated by a certain sect attest to the fact that sectarianism was present.
06 March 2013, 17:48
31
Rafehh... Abdul Khaddam. The Syrian vice Presidant from 1984 - 2005 and right hand man of Afez el Assad and son was decoration? There was no Muslim sectarian (civil war) issues back then. Rustom Ghazali, the Syrian boss of Lebanon from 2001... is he not Sunni?
This is nothing but a middle eastern sectarian war that diverts attention from Israel/palestine!!
06 March 2013, 20:09
12
Ado - yes. He was decoration. The fact that when assad died, he was totally sidelined attest to that fact. He may have been a big guy in relation to the common man but he did not yield much power at the top tier of the system.
06 March 2013, 16:25
22
Was he drinking and just had to say something? This was stupid remark even for a Lebanese. Maybe the next time he's cornered in his Medieval "Stronghold" he can call an al-Nursa terrorist suicide bombing jihadist to come and save him. Surely he will be protected because he's Druze. He's looking out for the interests of those Druze that are going to go down with him. He is not a genius.
06 March 2013, 16:53
15
I wish fpmers really read your comment Abraham to see who is their ally and what they have in store for them.
06 March 2013, 17:00
00
This low life feudal warlord piece of scum will have to actually join al-Qaeda in order for his sins of collaboration with Syria and all of Lebanon's enemies at the expense of all decent Lebanese to be looked into for possible yet improbable forgiveness.
06 March 2013, 18:55
01
People moaning and groaning about Al Nusra Front killing Christians but they support Assad and the Baath, how many Christians did good old Hafez kill in Lebanon? Maybe about 30 or 40 times as have died in the civil war in Syria.
06 March 2013, 21:42
12
the iranian regime is an EXTREMIST ISLAMIST regime FT... khamenei labeled the christians as enemies of the state and religion from the west...some religious minoritites are denied the right to exist! walaw... that is not extremist? lol but for you iran is good... pathetic you are...
but as aoun supports it you will always say the contrary to repeat what your leader says...
07 March 2013, 02:57
00
You have to admire this guy. Jumblatt will always side with the wining side, he has no principles just a survival instinct. The Syrian ragime will fall, it's matter of time.
07 March 2013, 03:12
00
everyone one of you should stop dreaming Assad will go soon, it will not happen. The USA Has calculated the costs of its " New middle east" , it fueled extremism in Egypt, Libya, Morroco, Yemen, Iraq so that it can put extremist sunnite organisations. As well as in Syria, all of that happening is only to weaken Bachar el Assad, thats all, Qatar and KSA are helping the USA to do that, but none want him to leave. They are only bugging him and weakening him so that they have an Big card againt Iran because it will be left alone, surrounded by Extremists everywhere.
07 March 2013, 03:52
00
Druze leader Walid Jumblat, I know a bit about his position, he rather keeps as of the beginning of the uprising his statement was "soon or later, the assad will fall". But even for a foreigner, I would like to believe that the people in Syria must have freedom and the right, "not with evil - including Israel", but to live as hunaminity of course, to choose their path to re-build and gain more democracy. To consider about the foreign influenece and the plot such as arming insurgency must be necessary or the support by US troop for new police or new troop whether they will be posiible to handle with assuming abundant of possible problems by seeing already terrosist inside in their countries from Libya so on. Your comment is too dissapointing.
07 March 2013, 07:03
11
Jombie wants to save his Druze(s) from beheading (apostates).
I dont' think it will save them.
