Bassil, Jumblat Trade ‘Appeasing’ Remarks, Affirm Adherence to Mountain Reconciliation

Caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil took to twitter on Friday praising the 1983 mountain reconciliation between the Christians and Druze, after which Druze leader Walid Jumblat replied saying "the past should be left behind."

"The reconciliation of the mountain is more precious than to be affected by words from the past which we have already put behind us," said Bassil, the Free Patriotic Movement chief, calling to "return to the language of reason no matter what the differences between us in politics are."

"No to returning to unilateralism or to the past. Yes to clinging to full partnership based on brotherhood. Greetings to all our people in the mountain and God's mercy to all the martyrs of the nation," he tweeted.

For his part, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblat, said via Twitter: "Let the memory of reconciliation be a reflection of how to establish an objective language for dialogue between us, away from the decline to tension which affects everyone without exception... Greetings to all the martyrs of the homeland without exception.

"It is time we leave the past behind and look forward to the future. Enough missing out on opportunities," said Jumblat.

The 1983 Mountain War occurred at the mountainous Shouf District located south-east of the capital Beirut between the Progressive Socialist Party and the Lebanese Forces.

The Lebanese Forces was driven out of the area and Christian civilians in Shouf, mainly the mixed town of Brih, were displaced.

The reconciliation was first initiated by former Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir in 2001.