Jumblat Says Cooperation Hardly Possible with Presidential Term

Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat said he can not “cooperate” with the presidential term of President Michel Aoun, and that the latter “complies” to poor guidance by a group of advisers close to him, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat daily reported on Wednesday.

In an interview with the newspaper, Jumblat said Aoun’s term and the people around him seek “vengeance,” referring to two incidents in Mount Lebanon’s towns of Qabrshmoun and al-Basatin. "We managed to survive miraculously,” he said.

Criticizing former minister and Aoun’s son-in-law, Jebran Bassil, the PSP leader said: “Perhaps President Aoun would come to realize the destructive policy of his son-in-law, but that is only a glimpse of recognition in light of accumulating political factors.”

On the new government of PM Hassan Diab, the Druze leader said some of its ministers seem tied to Syria, but still he plans to give it a chance.

“This government brings to mind the ministers and symbols who came to governance from the security system that prevailed back in 2005, the Syrian security system, to be more exact and clear,” he said, but still he intends to give it a "chance."

Whether his problem lies with the “term” itself or with the “President,” Jumblat noted that former PM “Saad Hariri believed he could deal with the President individually, but he sadly failed. There is a scary team next to the President, no need to name any, giving him (poor) judicial and political guidance which the President complies to.”

The Presidential term “still has three years, Hariri has tried diplomatically and failed. Let us see what the new government has to offer.”