The Druze leader and MP Walid Jumblatt called Monday for tackling Lebanon’s problems “courageously,” emphasizing the need to separate Syrian-Lebanese issues from internal affairs.
“I am with the deployment of Syrian forces for military and strategic purposes to confront Israel,” he said. “But at the same time, the management of economic, political, environmental and agricultural issues should stay separate” from regional strategies, Jumblatt told an audience of 500 students at the Lebanese American University.
The lecture was part of an end-of-semester project conducted by the school as part of a journalism course, taught by the famous talk-show host Marcel Ghanem.
According to the Lebanese Daily Star, Jumblatt said the current political system was composed in such a way that “we can’t solve the most trivial issues except by resorting to an external authority.” Jumblatt pointed out that even the appointment of a director-general at the National Social Security Fund required the intervention of Syrian intelligence chief, Major General Ghazi Kenaan.
“This has nothing to do with the strategic considerations with respect to the Arab-Israeli conflict or the Palestinian issue,” Jumblatt added. “There’s no system of accountability, everyone reproaches the other and when the three top leaders reproach each other, they appeal to the external (authority),” he added. (Albawaba.com)
