Jumblat trather be a 'trash collector' in New York,

Hizbullah Flays Jumblatt as a Fickle Friend
Hani M. Bathish - 30/12/2006



Hizbullah accused leading March 14 Forces member Walid Jumblatt on Friday of
discarding allies when it suits him and embracing new ones on a whim, adding
that the MP now has a "new master" in the form of the United States.


Loyalty to the Resistance MP Hussein Hajj Hassan was responding to comments
made by the Progressive Socialist Party leader in an interview with
Al-Arabiyya television channel.

Speaking during a religious ceremony in the South, Hassan said that when
Jumblatt needed Iran he would go and see Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and issue
speeches of support.

Addressing his comments to Jumblatt, Hassan said: "Now you no longer need
them [Iranians and Syrians] you are against them and you discard them."

Responding to Jumblatt's accusations that Hizbullah was involved in the
string of assassinations that targeted Lebanon's anti-Syrian politicians and
journalists, Hassan said: "We demand to know the truth behind the
assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri and this truth will be
determined by the investigation commission and the court, not by Jumblatt."

He said that while the Druze leader accused Hizbullah of being behind the
assassinations, in past statements both Jumblatt and the parliamentary
majority leader, MP Saad Hariri, exonerated Hizbullah, "so which statements
are we to believe?"

In his interview with Al-Arabiyya, Jumblatt accused Hizbullah and its
leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, of being behind "some, if not all" of the
assassinations in Lebanon, accusing them of obtaining weapons from Israel in
exchange for the release of Western hostages in what was known as the
"Iran-Contra" affair.

Referring to earlier statements made by Jumblatt that he would rather be a
trash collector in New York than a political leader in Lebanon, Hassan said
that "if Jumblatt's imagination convinces him he would rather be a 'trash
collector' in New York, he is free to do so, but to link [Hizbullah] with
Israel ... I do not know how he can do that.

"The Israelis who have admitted to their defeat have not made such
statements. It is the strangest thing to say Israel arms us so we can fight
them and humiliate their army," Hassan added.

In his interview, Jumblatt said that both Hizbullah and Nasrallah are not
Lebanese and receive their orders from Syria and Iran. He said he feared
that those who control Hizbullah's decision-making "are pushing for a civil
war in Lebanon."

Jumblatt's comments came on the heels of an announcement the day before that
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri would launch a new initiative to end the
political standoff between the two rival camps. Jumblatt, in his most
scathing attack on Hizbullah yet, said the party

hijacked the Shiite sect, leading it astray and far from its Arab and
Lebanese identities, harming the Shiites culturally, politically and
economically.

Jumblatt said there is no possibility to work with Hizbullah as it
represents the "culture of death," stressing that there will be no resolving
matters with the Syrian regime either.

The majority has the right to seek help from any country, he added, except
Israel, in facing the Syrian regime.

In response, Hassan said: "We are students of the culture of martyrdom; we
differ from you [Jumblatt] in culture, for we have not called for the
invasion of another Arab country even if we disagree with them," referring
to Jumblatt's call on Turkey to "sweep Syria away."

As a result of Jumblatt's allegations that footage of Telecommunications
Minister Marwan Hamadeh's booby-trapped car has disappeared from the
archives of the Military tribunal, to later surface in the office of former
Surete Generale Chief Major General Jamil Sayyed, the latter's lawyer filed
a complaint with Beirut's Court of Cassation demanding an investigation into
Jumblatt's claims.


-Source: The Daily Star, 30/12/2006.



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