Jumblat Concerned over Lebanon, Doesn't See New President Anytime Soon

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has expressed his deep concern over the situation in Lebanon, saying the country was now fully submerged in Syria's war.

“We have directly entered the Syrian war. The accusations of one party to the other that terrorism wouldn't have reached Lebanon without its intervention (in Syria), are now useless,” Jumblat told al-Akhbar newspaper in an interview published on Thursday.

“I fear on the country,” he said, stressing that tension in any area could spread quickly and threaten the country's security.

“We should back the army … because its mission is to defend Lebanon,” Jumblat added.

The Lebanese are bitterly divided over Syria's civil war. Hizbullah fighters have gone to join Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces in their battle against Sunni rebels, drawing anger at home from Lebanon's Sunnis and stoking Sunni-Shiite tensions. This in turn led to tit-for-tat suicide bombings and several rounds of street clashes in Lebanon in the past year.

The lawmaker said he agreed with Speaker Nabih Berri that the extension of parliament's term should be conditioned with the election of a new president as soon as possible.

Berri also said Wednesday that he backed the extension if there was an agreement to hold the parliamentary elections after MPs agree on a successor to President Michel Suleiman, whose six-year term ended in May.

“We can't hold parliamentary polls in the absence of a president because we would reach vacuum. The government would be considered resigned,” Jumblat said.

“So who would hold the consultations to form the new government?” he asked.

The PSP chief expressed pessimism however, saying he was not seeing a president at Baabda Palace anytime soon.

Asked whether he thought Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea were responsible for the presidential deadlock, Jumblat said: “Maybe … and probably Christian leaders should have met and agreed on a candidate.”

The rival MPs have failed in more than a dozen rounds of parliamentary sessions to elect a new head of state.

Geagea has officially announced his candidacy and has been backed by the March 14 alliance. But the MPs of Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and the majority of the March 8 camp have boycotted the parliamentary sessions to thwart Geagea's election.

The majority of the March 8 alliance's officials claim however that the elections should be held only after the rival parties agree on a compromise candidate.

Jumblat stressed that any possible initiative made by him or Berri would not succeed if certain parties continued to hinge on the changes in the region.

“Currently, there won't be any regional change that is in Lebanon’s favor. That's why we are heading towards the crisis to extend parliament's term and prolonging” the vacuum at Baabda, he said.

Jumblat told his interviewer that the Islamic State terrorist group wiped out the map of the Middle East.

Asked if he expected another deadly battle between the Lebanese army and the jihadists in the northeastern border town of Arsal, the MP said: “What's important is for the Lebanese state to succeed unitedly in meeting the demands of the kidnappers of troops.”

The army engaged in deadly gunbattles with IS and al-Nusra Front fighters in August when they overran Arsal. The militants took with them hostages from the military and police and later executed three of them.

Among their demands is the release of Islamist prisoners from Roumieh.

Jumblat reiterated that he backed a swap “within possible and reasonable conditions” but denied he was aware of the efforts exerted by the Lebanese authorities in that regard.

G.K.

H.K.