Jumblat urges negotiations based on Line 23, warns against 'sea Shebaa'

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has urged an end to “overbidding and bickering in the sea border and oil rights file,” stressing that “the framework agreement that was launched by Speaker Nabih Berri is the only appropriate reference to approach our rights, based on the requirements of Lebanese national interest and according to Line 23.”

“Abiding by this agreement spares us from all the unnecessary explanation efforts,” Jumblat said in an interview with al-Joumhouria newspaper published Friday.

Rejecting any attempt to create a “sea Shebaa,” Jumblat added: “We can do without a new Brig. Gen. (Amin) Hoteit, reincarnated in 2022 in Brig. Gen. Bassam Yassine.”

He was referring to the controversy over the identity of the occupied Shebaa Farms and the brigadier general who led the demarcation of the land border with Israel in the year 2000.

Asked whether he fears that the standoff over the maritime border and gas fields might turn into a war, Jumblat said: “The decision of war is not to be taken by you or me. This issue is bigger than us.”

As for the appointment of a new premier, the PSP leader slammed “the repetition of the heresy of exploring the identity of the new premier outside the stipulations of the constitution,” in reference to reports that President Michel Aoun is seeking a prior agreement on the identity of the new PM ahead of calling for binding parliamentary consultations to officially designate a new premier.

“The delay in calling for binding parliamentary consultations to pick the PM-designate represents a blatant violation of the constitution,” Jumblat added.

Asked who he will nominate for the post, the PSP leader said: “The Democratic Gathering will make the nomination, not me.”