Jumblat not Planning on Hosting Syria's Druze as PSP Delegation Visits Turkey
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat does not intend to host Syria's Druze in areas where the sect is concentrated in Lebanon, sources said, as a PSP delegation visited Turkey to contain the repercussions of the killing of at least 20 Druze in the neighboring country.
Sources close to Jumblat denied to the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily published on Monday reports that the PSP chief would host Druze from Syria in Lebanon's Shouf district to guarantee their safety.
“The Druze of Idlib (province) and of Syria in general will not leave their land and country which have embraced them for centuries,” said the sources.
Al-Nusra Front said on Saturday it would prosecute members involved in the shoot-out in Idlib that killed at least 20 members of the country's Druze minority.
On Thursday, residents of the village of Qalb Lawzah protested after a Tunisian al-Nusra leader tried to seize a Druze man's home, accusing him of being loyal to the Syrian regime, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Tunisian leader gathered his men and accused the Druze residents of the village of blasphemy and opened fire on them killing at least 20 people, among them elderly people and at least one child, said the Observatory.
The killings forced Jumblat last week to calm members of Syria's minority sect, saying they were an "individual" incident.
Jumblat, a harsh critic of Syrian President Bashar Assad, warned that any incitement "will endanger the Druze of Syria," adding that Assad's forces kill dozens of people every day in Syria.
As part of his efforts to contain the repercussions of the attack and seek the protection of the Druze in the neighboring country, Jumblat dispatched a delegation led by Health Minister Wael Abou Faour to Turkey.
The PSP delegation is expected to hold talks with the representatives of the Syrian opposition, leaders of the Turkish intelligence and officials at the Turkish foreign ministry, pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported Monday.
It quoted PSP spokesman Rami al-Rayyes as saying that Jumblat is seeking to guarantee the safety of the Druze villages to avoid a repetition of the Qalb Lawzah attack.
“We are convinced that the protection of the Druze at this sensitive stage needs wise stances and not a reckless behavior that leads to more bloodshed and the involvement of the Druze in (Syria's) war,” he said.
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