Jumblat rant—number 386

Ya Libnan summerises Walid Jumblat's latest rant during a recent TV interview:

- We do not want a "gathering of tribes, we want a state" and asked Nasrallah whether he and his allies recognize Lebanon as an independent state.
- A political agreement is needed to avoid exhausting the army.
- "I thank God that my father died in 1977 and did not witness what we are going through.
- Lebanon "is not Aleppo or Houran, Lebanon is an independent country."
- March 14 Presidential candidate Nassib Lahoud supported the nomination of Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman for president.
- Nasrallah "is not a free man and his decision-making is not free."
- It is not Israel that is killing Lebanese civilians these days.
- Lebanon was a democratic country "before Bashar and his father were born."
- The March 14 alliance is a pluralist group.
- Nasrallah would not be able to contradict a fatwa by Khamenei that the Siniora government is illegitimate.
- "I wouldn't go into negotiations if a gun is pointed to my head."
- "We don't want Beirut changed into another Baghdad."
- The campaign targeting Premier Fouad Siniora is of a factional nature.
- He would not allow Syria and Iran to control decision-making in Lebanon.
- There is only one negotiator facing March 14 and that is Hezbollah.
- The majority would not give the opposition veto powers in any government because that would allow Syria and Ahmadinejad to block Lebanon's political process.
- Palestinian bases outside refugee camps are "Syrian bases."
- The resistance should be absorbed in the Army and the decision of going into war should be in the hands of the Lebanese authorities, Jumblat said.
- The assassination of Brig. Gen. Francois el-Hajj was a message to the Lebanese that you are not entitled to choose your president.
- The opposition aims at eliminating the state of Lebanon.
- Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun is not a principal negotiator.
- Jumblat said Hezbollah is morally responsible for attacks staged by Syrian intelligence in Lebanon.
- Syria will not recognize that Shebaa Farms are Lebanese territory because it wants Lebanon to remain under U.N. Security Council resolution 242.
- Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem has no authority to discuss the Lebanon situation.
- Normalization of relations with Syria should be based on Syrian recognition of Lebanon as an independent and sovereign state.
- Stressed that the borders are open for Hezbollah weapons from Iran to Lebanon via Syria.
- If Hezbollah changed Lebanon into an Iranian-like state it would justify the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.
- Can Hezbollah survive as a political party without Iranian financing and Iranian Weapons?

err that's all folks...!