Jumblat Urges Syria Druze to Shun Repression: We Don't Need Iran Lectures
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Friday called on the Druze of Syria not to engage in the repression of anti-regime protests, stressing that engaging the Druze in the “acts of killing” is a “historic mistake.”
In an interview with the London-based, pan-Arab weekly The Majalla, Jumblat said: “In addition to the (predominantly Druze) region of Jabal al-Arab, there is another bleeding region in Syria, the region of Daraa, and the Druze should not engage in a Syrian axis that is against the (Sunni) majority.”
“The Syrian regime is using some military recruits from the residents of Jabal al-Arab in acts of killing and repression against the protesters in Homs, Hama and Daraa,” the Druze leader added.
Separately, he stressed that the Lebanese “are in agreement and they support the Resistance and they do not need lectures from Iran.”
“We stress that we do not want to be an axis of conflict, neither in Lebanon nor in Syria, and if the Iranians insist on the principle of resisting Israel in their style, they must know that the Syrian people, the Lebanese people and the Arab peoples are genuine resistant fighters, and we don’t need lectures from anyone,” said Jumblat.
“The Arab peoples insist that the Palestinians have the right to have their independent state,” he added.
As Jumblat stressed that “the central mission of Hizbullah’s arms is confronting Israel,” he called on the party “not to totally align itself with the Syrian regime.”
The Druze leader also said he did not agree with Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s viewpoint on the Syrian crisis, saying “there is no conspiracy against Syria, but rather a grave mistake the regime had committed against the citizens in Daraa, and it remained unaddressed and those who committed crimes against the people of Daraa have not been held accountable.”
“Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah must advise Bashar al-Assad on the need to carry out reforms for the sake of pluralistic, democratic Syria that is open to all political currents,” Jumblat went on to say.
Addressing Lebanon’s relation with Saudi Arabia, Jumblat said the kingdom “has always played a well-known, positive role in Lebanon.”
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