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Hariri Lashes Out at Jumblat, Accuses Him of 'Distorting Facts, Disrupting Govt. Course'

Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Sunday hit back swiftly at remarks voiced by Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat, with whom ties have been strained in recent days.

“The remarks seeking to attack the Premiership’s role, prestige and performance… are a mere attempt at fishing in troubled waters,” Hariri said in a statement released by his press office.

“They are aimed at compensating for the problems that those who voiced these remarks are facing and the concessions that they themselves had rushed to offer,” the premier added.

“The Premiership will not be an easy target for anyone… and it does not need lectures in constitutional norms and requirements from anyone,” Hariri went on to say, accusing Jumblat – without naming him – of “falsifying the facts, especially as to the drafting of the cabinet’s policy statement.”

He also accused him of decrying alleged corruption with the aim of “disrupting the government’s course under the excuse of seeking to rectify the situations.”

Earlier in the day, Jumblat said he has “noticed unilateralism in the formation of the government as if the premiership was nearly absent and as if Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil has laid out the broad lines of the cabinet’s policy statement and the upcoming period.”

Speaking to reporters after an emergency meeting for his Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc in Clemenceau, Jumblat also revealed that a Gathering delegation will visit President Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Hariri to ask the question: “What is the fate of the Taef Accord?”

Hoping to get a clear answer from Hariri, the PSP leader added: “If Hariri wants to renounce the Taef Accord, this will create a major crisis in the country."

Source: Naharnet


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