Lebanese Druze leader Walid Joumblatt has described the comments that sparked a diplomatic crisis between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia as “heresy” and called on Gulf countries to re-engage with Beirut.
Speaking to The National from his residence in the capital, Mr Joumblatt, 72, said Lebanon was suffering the consequences of Information Minister George Kordahi's comments about the war in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition. His remarks prompted the kingdom and four other Gulf states to withdraw their envoys from Beirut last month.
“It’s heresy what they are claiming and saying — attacking the Gulf and using the Yemenis to attack Saudi Arabia — really its heresy. We are in the middle of this conflict, paying the price,” he said.
Mr Joumblatt also called on Gulf countries to work with Lebanon through support for its institutions.
He issued a warning that Iran-backed groups stood to gain from Saudi Arabia’s withdrawal from the country, which is suffering from economic and political crises.
“Abandoning” Lebanon will make Hezbollah stronger, he said.
“I’m asking for them to deal with us cleverly. I’m not asking them to help politicians, but to help institutions, universities, hospitals and social institutions,” he said.
“Not all the Lebanese are pro-Iranian, not all the Lebanese accept Iranian policy. Not all the Lebanese have to pay the price for the fact Hezbollah controls the main levers of the government.”
The complex power-sharing arrangement that underpins Lebanon's political system — the so-called confessional system divides power between Christian and Muslim communities — means it is impossible to sack Mr Kordahi, Mr Joumblatt said.
“You cannot sack him because of political reasons, because of the unwillingness of Hezbollah and others, you cannot sack him — it’s a system based on the mutual consensus of all parties,” he said.
The diplomatic crisis sparked by Mr Kordahi’s comments threatens to isolate Lebanon from one of its traditional backers during a suffocating economic crisis, and as state institutions fail.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said last week that the kingdom's actions were a response to Hezbollah’s dominance of Lebanon's political system.
“We have come to the conclusion that dealing with Lebanon and its current government is not productive and not helpful,” he told US broadcaster CNBC.
Mr Joumblatt, who leads the Progressive Socialist Party but is no longer a member of parliament, said the country was facing the worst crisis in its history.
“Lebanon, even during the time of the Civil War, was better. It was better during the time of the Syrian occupation,” he said. Syrian forces occupied Lebanon between 1976 and 2005.
“Syria respected the Lebanese state, they did not abolish or weaken the Lebanese state. We were a satellite country, but we were not in this catastrophic economic situation.”
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PULITZER PRIZE 2020 WINNERS
JOURNALISM
Public Service
Anchorage Daily News in collaboration with ProPublica
Breaking News Reporting
Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
Investigative Reporting
Brian M. Rosenthal of The New York Times
Explanatory Reporting
Staff of The Washington Post
Local Reporting
Staff of The Baltimore Sun
National Reporting
T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi of ProPublica
and
Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker and Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Times
International Reporting
Staff of The New York Times
Feature Writing
Ben Taub of The New Yorker
Commentary
Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times
Criticism
Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times
Editorial Writing
Jeffery Gerritt of the Palestine (Tx.) Herald-Press
Editorial Cartooning
Barry Blitt, contributor, The New Yorker
Breaking News Photography
Photography Staff of Reuters
Feature Photography
Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of the Associated Press
Audio Reporting
Staff of This American Life with Molly O’Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green, freelancer, Vice News for “The Out Crowd”
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Fiction
"The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
Drama
"A Strange Loop" by Michael R. Jackson
History
"Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America" by W. Caleb McDaniel (Oxford University Press)
Biography
"Sontag: Her Life and Work" by Benjamin Moser (Ecco/HarperCollins)
Poetry
"The Tradition" by Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press)
General Nonfiction
"The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care" by Anne Boyer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
and
"The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America" by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books)
Music
"The Central Park Five" by Anthony Davis, premiered by Long Beach Opera on June 15, 2019
Special Citation
Ida B. Wells
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Rock in a Hard Place: Music and Mayhem in the Middle East
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Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
