Jumblat Hails Release of Aazaz Pilgrims: State Alone Entitled to Resolve Country's Crises
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat praised on Monday the efforts of General Security chief Major General Abbas Ibrahim in ensuring the release of the nine Lebanese pilgrims who were kidnapped in Syria for over a year.
He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa website: “The case demonstrated that official Lebanese figures and institutions alone have the right to deal with foreign powers during times of crises and under normal circumstances.”
He noted that the deal to ensure the release of the pilgrims had in the past been thwarted by the meddling of individuals or countries, which only served to complicate matters.
Addressing the release of Syrian female prisoners held in Syrian jails as part of the deal to free the pilgrims, Jumblat remarked: “This issue does not eliminate the fact the hundreds of thousands of Syrians are still prisoners of their country's regime.”
They have gone missing inside their country and they have become displaced abroad, “while the so-called international community has not lifted a finger to help them,” he noted.
“It has instead rewarded the regime by hailing its efforts in helping international experts in removing its chemical weapons arsenal, while disregarding the destruction, murder, and kidnapping it has committed,” said the MP.
“On top of all this, and as part of the unprecedented international policy of hypocrisy, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which helped wipe clean President Bashar Assad's record, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,” lamented the PSP leader.
He stated: “Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, may have devised the idea of the international prize as a way to redeem some of his mistakes.”
“How many fingers of Syrian children have been blown off by dynamite and tank and aircraft shelling?” he wondered.
How many people were killed by non-chemical weapons? he asked.
“Has the Syrian crisis ended with the elimination of chemical arms?” he continued.
“When will the peace prize be granted to whoever saves Syria from the criminal regime?” said Jumblat.
Eleven Lebanese pilgrims were kidnapped in Syria's Aleppo region in May 2012 as they were making their way back to Lebanon by land from pilgrimage in Iran.
Two were released last year, while the remaining nine were released on Friday and they returned to Lebanon on Saturday.
Ibrahim and Qatar have been credited with ensuring their release.
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