Jumblat urges Nasrallah to avoid war, calls for 'president with program'

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Tuesday urged Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to avoid a war with Israel, as he called for electing a new president who has a “clear program.”

“There are rockets but will the Lebanese eat rockets?” Jumblat said in an interview on LBCI television.

“We tell (Hezbollah chief) Sayyed Hassan (Nasrallah) that he can send drones and missiles but must try to think of the (Israeli) reaction. Even if you think that you have a military balance, you should be careful in these moments, and you should try to avoid war,” he added.

“No one can prevent war. If it erupts we have to accept it and what we can do is to draw Nasrallah’s attention to the negative repercussions of war on us,” Jumblat went on to say.

Describing a future war with Israel as “mutual self-destruction,” the PSP leader noted the Lebanese people would still show solidarity with each other in the event of a new conflict.

As for the upcoming presidential election, Jumblat said the PSP “wants a clear program in all files.”

“If no candidate has a clear program, we won’t elect anyone,” he added.

“I appreciate the Franjieh family and if Suleiman Franjieh presents a complete program we might accept him,” Jumblat said.

Commenting on Archbishop Moussa al-Hajj’s case, the PSP leader said: “Perhaps there has been a mistake in the timing of Archbishop Moussa al-Hajj’s detention, but the latter was carrying money from families present in occupied Palestine who at a certain time collaborated with the enemy and the Israelis.”

“We do not need the money of Israel’s Druze because this money is suspicious,” Jumblat added.

And warning that the calls for sacking Judge Fadi Akiki would “give Hezbollah an excuse to demand the firing of (Beirut port blast investigator Judge) Tarek Bitar,” Jumblat said that Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea “does not have the right to call Judge Akiki a traitor.”