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Jumblat Targets Hizbullah State in Lebanon

Druze leader Walid Jumblat has accused Hizbullah of setting up a state within the state, saying a settlement to the political crisis was not in the offing and urged the Lebanese army to control tunnels allegedly used to smuggle weapons from Syria to Lebanon.
The daily an-Nahar quoted Jumblat as telling supporters at his ancestral palace in Mukhtara, in the Chouf heartland southeast of Beirut that factions affiliated with Hizbullah are planning to stir up trouble in Mount Lebanon.

He warned against schemes to stir inter factional fighting in the Druze hinterland of Mount Lebanon by Syrian-backed groups.

"They are trying to set up a new Riyad Solh square in Mount Lebanon," Jumblat said.

He was referring to the makeshift tent city that has been erected since Dec. 1 by the Hizbullah-led opposition in downtown Beirut in a so far failed effort to topple Premier Fouad Saniora's majority government.

He said the tent city has become a "military camp not a sit-in protest stage."

In an interview with al-Jazeera satellite television network, Jumblat launched a vehement attack on the opposition asking: "what opposition?"

"The opposition is a state run by Iran and the Syrian regime in Lebanon. There is a state within the state. We have the Hizbullah army in addition to the Lebanese army, we have Hizbullah intelligence in addition to the Lebanese Army intelligence, there are territories that the Lebanese army cannot enter and the Lebanese state cannot practice its authority on such lands," Jumblat said.

"What opposition? It is not more than Iranian-Syrian opposition (to the Lebanese government)," he added.

Jumblat said: "We want the Syrian regime and agents of the Syrian regime to stop the assassinations. That is why we sought the help of the United Nations."

He was referring to the international tribunal that, once created, would try suspects in the 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri and related crimes. The majority blames the killings on Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime. Damascus denies the charges.

Syria's allies in the Hizbullah-led opposition have voiced "reservations" on the tribunal, but never outlined such objections formally.

Majority MPs have sent a memo to the United Nations asking the International organization to adopt the needed measures to set up the tribunal after Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri rejected receiving its government prepared bill for ratification by the house.

Jumblat also attacked the Lebanese army command for issuing a statement prior to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's recent visit to Beirut claiming that weapons were not being smuggled in from neighboring Syria.

"Instead of the Media-political maneuver, the Lebanese army should have established control over (illegal) tunnels linking Lebanon to Syria and deployed in areas that are off limits for its troops" near the borders with Syria, Jumblat said.

He also accused "Hizbullah and others" of setting up "training camps … The problem would cease to exist when the flow of weapons and ammunition across the Syrian borders stops. We want a Lebanese state."

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 34-day war between Hizbullah and Israel on Aug. 14, has banned the smuggling of weapons into Lebanon.

France is leading an effort at the U.N. Security Council to set up an independent mission to determine effectiveness of the Lebanese-Syrian border control arrangements.

The move was seen as a step aimed at providing international help to Lebanon to effectively control its borders with Syria.

Most of the border region with Syria is controlled by Hizbullah and Syrian-controlled Palestinian factions that maintain bases on Lebanese territory, allegedly linked to Syrian territory by a network of tunnels.

Such illegal facilities are off limits to the Lebanese army.

Jumblat, further more, rejected repeated calls by Berri for talks by the various Lebanese factions in Saudi Arabia to work out a settlement to the ongoing political crisis.

"We go to Saudi Arabia to announce a settlement, but the agreement should be worked out and reached in Lebanon," Jumblat added.

He echoed remarks made by Parliamentary majority Leader Saad Hariri that a settlement to the Lebanese crisis should be worked out in Lebanon, and can be announced in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia also has made it clear it was ready to host the declaration of a Lebanese settlement, stressing that talks to work out the deal should be carried out in Lebanon without interference by non-Lebanese parties.

Beirut, 08 Apr 07, 10:47


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