Jumblat, Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Locked in Verbal Spat
Caretaker Minister of Social Affairs Wael Abou Faour and Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali engaged on Saturday in a war of words days after the diplomat said in a statement that his country “has no ties with Walid Jumblat who was an accomplice in incitement against Syria.”
“The resilience of the Syrian regime didn't surprise us as much as the hatred that its leadership has towards the Syrian people didn't surprise us,” Abou Faour said in a statement.
He pointed out that “we won't be stunned by its inevitable downfall or the fate that its murders will have to face.”
Abou Faour said that “sooner or later all the Syrian leadership murders will have to face the fate that they deserve in order to achieve justice and to fairness to the sufferings and struggles of the Syrian people.”
The caretaker Minister's statement comes days after the Syrian ambassador denied that there are any ties between his country and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat.
Ali accused Jumblat of being an accomplice in “incitement against Syria, harboring insurgents and twisting facts.”
He also ruled out reports saying that the “doors of Damascus were open for Jumblat's son Taymour,” drawing a retaliatory statement by Jumblat to French-language daily L'Orient Le Jour.
Jumblat said in remarks on Friday to the newspaper that he would visit Syria only if the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad collapses and the country is “liberated.”
“Neither I nor my son have planned for a single moment to go to Damascus,” the daily quoted him as saying.
Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad are fighting rebels seeking to topple him.
The fighting erupted in early 2011 when Assad launched a crackdown on pro-democracy protests and has since evolved into a full-blown civil war that has claimed an estimated 126,000 lives.
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