PSP Affirms Commitment to 'Mountain Reconciliation'
The Progressive Socialist Party on Wednesday stressed keenness on preserving “reconciliation, cooperation and civil peace in the Mountain” voicing calls to shun political rhetoric with the aim of gaining popularity in the elections.
“It is always our concern to preserve the peace that we have established in the Mountain through the historic reconciliation, which the Maronite Patriarch (Sfeir) has repeatedly stressed in more than one visit to the Mountain, as well as the President of the Republic,” PSP sources told the daily.
“We have opened our hands to all and cooperated with all, and we are still ready to cooperate and partnership with all political forces,” they added.
The sources who spoke on condition of anonymity stated: “Through all of our political path since the end of the war until today, we have always worked for reconciliation. Any jolt in the Mountain, God forbid, means the country is gone.”
Referring to statements made by Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, the sources concluded: “Let us keep the populist and electoral rhetoric away. The Christians are more disturbed than the Druze by that rhetoric. People want to live they do not want to open the graves of the past.”
The PSP's remarks came after comments made by Free Patriotic Movement and Minister Jebran Bassil regarding the killings and displacement that took place in Mount Lebanon during the civil war and the Mountain Reconciliation in 2001.
Bassil had called for a “political return to Mount Lebanon” during a visit to the Aley District town of Rechmaya.
The Minister's remarks were highly criticized by PSP and the Lebanese Forces who argue that Bassil's rhetoric aims to “dig graves” or “build glory on the achievements made by Patriarch Sfeir.”
Several violent clashes have occurred between Druze and Christians during the Lebanese Civil War (Mountain War).
Reconciliation between the Druze and Christian communities came to fruition on August 8, 2001, when the Maronite Patriarch Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir made a historic visit to the Chouf and met with the Druze and Chouf leader, Walid Jumblat.
Source: Naharnet
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