Jumblat: Respecting Baabda Declaration, Suleiman's Principles Will Redirect Arms away from Syria

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat noted on Monday that constantly debating the possession of arms outside of the authority of the state will not help resolve this issue, stating that President Michel Suleiman had clearly stipulated that the national dialogue will help settle this dispute.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa website: “Adhering to Baabda Declaration and Suleiman's principles is necessary to redirect the arms to their rightful role away from the Syrian crisis.”

“These principles will help the arms from getting lost in Syria's al-Qusayr region and avert erasing the memory of honorable sacrifices the resistance presented in defending southern Lebanon for decades,” he remarked.

The sooner the Lebanese factions reach an agreement over a national defense strategy, which allows the state to alone be tasked with defending the country, the sooner will Lebanon be protected, added the MP.

“The division over the possession of arms and the defense strategy will only weaken Lebanon on the internal scene and expose the country to all sorts of security and political dangers,” said Jumblat.

On this note, he stressed the need to provide the army will all forms of political and logistic support in order to enable it to perform its major national duties away from political disputes.

“The arms in Lebanon should be employed to defend the country and they should only have Lebanese goals in order to prevent the country from once again be transformed into an open ground for settling regional and international scores,” he continued.

“It is time for Iran to alter its biased stance towards the Syrian regime, which will collapse sooner or later, that is only serving to deepen the sectarian divide” in the region, he said.

On Monday, an official of the rebel Free Syrian Army, Louay al-Meqdad, accused Hizbullah of carrying out an “unprecedented invasion” backed by Syrian artillery fire in villages in central Syria.

He said: “Hizbullah's invasion is the first of its kind in terms of organization, planning and coordination with the Syrian regime's airforce.”

His comments came a day after the opposition Syrian National Council said Hizbullah fighters crossed into Homs province of central Syria on Saturday and attacked three Syrian villages in the Qusayr region near the Lebanese border.

A Hizbullah official said three Lebanese Shiites were killed in clashes in Syria while acting in "self-defense,” without specifying if they were party members.

Commenting on his visit to Saudi Arabia last week, Jumblat said: “I sensed during my trip to the kingdom and my meetings with Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal and intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan their keenness on Lebanon's stability.”

The kingdom stands “firmly” in support of the Syrian people “and their rightful struggle for freedom and independence, he added.