Assad May Task Jumblat with Mediating with Turkey

Thursday’s meeting between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat did not focus on the issue of Lebanon’s cabinet formation process, but rather at the possibility of tasking the Druze leader with “mediating between Syria and Turkey,” whose once warm relations have grown colder over Damascus’ violent crackdown on protesters, MTV reported Friday.

Meanwhile, OTV reported that Assad told Jumblat that “Syria has overcome the dangerous phase and that it has started to contain the situation caused by the conspiracy plotted by some major world powers and Arab states.”

He also told him that there is a “plot to separate him from Hizbullah,” but stressed that “the relation with the Resistance stems from a deeply-rooted conviction and that he will hold on to it until the end,” according to OTV.

The TV network also reported that Jumblat has dispatched envoys to meet with President Michel Suleiman, Premier-designate Najib Miqati and Speaker Nabih Berri, with the aim of briefing them on his meeting with Assad.

On Thursday, Jumblat held talks with Assad in Damascus, in the presence of caretaker Public Works and Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi.

During the meeting, Jumblat “voiced his hope that Syria will be able to overcome this critical period in its history through endorsing the reforms launched by President Assad,” according to a statement issued by the PSP following the Druze leader’s return to Beirut.

For his part, Assad hoped during the talks that the Lebanese would succeed in overcoming their disputes and form a new government soon “for the country’s greater good,” Syria’s state-run news agency SANA reported.