Jumblat Demands Diplomatic Ties with Syria to End Lebanon's Servitude

Druze leader Walid Jumblat has taken his campaign against Syria's tutelage a notch up, siding for the first time with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir in publicly demanding the establishment of diplomatic relations on an ambassadorial level between Lebanon and Syria. "The concept that the Lebanese and he Syrians are one people in two states has to be reconsidered," Jumblat said in an interview published by the French-language Beirut daily L'Orient le Jour Wednesday and reproduced by the Agence France Presses on Thursday. "There are plenty of bonds between the Lebanese and the Syrians. But they are two different people in two different states," Jumblat said, disputing the 'one people' concept that was coined by Syria's late President Hafez Assad during the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war. The regime of Assad's son, Bashar, which took over Syria's reins in 2000, has adopted the 'one people concept,' which, Jumblat suggests, has turned Lebanon into "the last remaining Soviet-like subservient state in the world" despite the collapse of the Soviet Union. Jumblat demanded a "state-to-state relationship between Lebanon and Syria" that would one day lead to the establishment of diplomatic ties. "Even within the Soviet empire there were diplomatic relations and ambassadors between member-states," he said. The leader of the Progressive Socialist Party said he had been subjected to enormous pressure to change his opposition to the extension of President Lahoud's term in office and his rejection of meddling in Lebanon's political life by Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services. "But Syria has lately received a real warning from the western powers," Jumblat said in an apparent reference to a reported warning by the United States that it would hold the Assad administration responsible for any life-threatening attacks against Lebanese opposition leaders. He urged Syria to disband its secret service apparatus in Lebanon as "the only way to establish a relationship of trust and mutual confidence" between the two countries. The resignation of President Lahoud will be a face-saving exit for Syria," Jumblat said, asserting that the upcoming parliamentary elections in spring would amount to a "referendum for a "unified, democratic and independent Lebanon without subservience." He emphasized the need of foreign observers to monitor the elections and "abort Moukhabarat interference."