Jumblatt: Nasrallah should not back Syrian regime

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat criticized on Monday Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s position on the Syrian crisis, saying that he should have taken a stance towards the Syrian people that is “more in line with the liberation role he played in the South.” He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “He was better off not referring to one of the symbols of oppression against the Syrian people as a comrade-in-arms.” He made his remark in reference to Nasrallah’s statement that Assef Shawkat, slain brother-in-law of the Syrian president, is a “comrade-in-arms who backed the Palestinian resistance in Gaza and backed us in the July war.” Shawkat was killed last week in an explosion that targeted the Syrian National Security building. Jumblat continued: “Those who defend the Palestinian people and their legitimate demands for freedom cannot stand against the Syrian people and their rightful demands.” Moreover, the MP said: “At the height of the political division in Lebanon at the time of the political assassinations, we recognized the resistance’s victory in confronting Israeli aggression during the July 2006 war.” “We asked Nasrallah to whom he would like to dedicate the victory, which can only be granted to the state through a national defense strategy,” he noted. Addressing the national dialogue, the PSP leader said: “The PSP’s position is clear in that it supports the dialogue as the only way to resolve political disputes.” He noted that President Michel Suleiman had said that the talks will focus on ways to employ the resistance’s arms within a defense strategy, as well as the Palestinian possession of arms and the spread of weapons in Lebanon. The PSP demands however that the case of the telecommunications data be resolved because it concerns the safety of the Lebanese people, regardless of their political affiliations, said Jumblat. He stressed the importance of coordination between the security agencies in order to thwart assassinations given “the transformation of Israeli collaborators into heroes instead of criminals who should be sentences to death.” In addition, he noted that the discovery of Israeli espionage devices only highlights the need to for coordination between the security forces to confront the threat of assassinations.