Israel Matzav

Another son of a Syrian victim apologizes to Assad

Three months after we were treated to the spectacle of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri kissing the man who ordered his father's murder, another Lebanese politician whose father was murdered by the Syrian regime (albeit this time by the previous President) is 'apologizing' to the Assad family: Walid Jumblatt.

After years of alliances with Western-leaning politicians and fierce anti-Syrian rhetoric, Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has issued a formal apology to Syrian President Bashar Assad for controversial statements slamming the Alawite regime.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Saturday night, Jumblatt said he had “offended Assad during a moment of anger,” adding that he knew his words must have been intolerable to the Syrian leader. “I used inappropriate language,” he told the news channel. His words were communicated by Al-Nahar.

The Druze politician, who heads Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist party, suggested that it was in both countries’ interests to turn over a new leaf. "In the past I would say: 'forgive but don't forget.' Today I say: 'forgive and forget,'" he was quoted as saying.

Jumblatt’s earlier rhetoric was fueled in part by rumors that Syria had perpetrated the murder of his father, Kamal Jumblatt, in 1977, and later former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005. In the past, he had called Assad a dictator and a product of Israeli machinations.

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In his Al Jazeera interview, Jumblatt stressed his willingness to visit Damascus were he to receive an invitation from Assad. “I want to tell the Syrian people that we share the same destiny,” he reportedly said. “We are one people, one land.”

Jumblatt went on to speak of pressing regional issues, among them the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Arabs are divided everywhere” in the face of Israeli and Western “aggression,” he said.

He concluded by saying that he hoped his son would grow up to “see a new, secular Middle East.”

I wonder if he checked that last statement with his country's masters from Hezbullah.

In case you are wondering, Jumblatt's turnaround is the result of Obama abandoning the anti-Hezbullah forces in Lebanon, followed by the Saudis reading the writing on the wall and making a deal with Syria to compromise Lebanon's sovereignty. More on that here.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:09 AM