Saturday 28 July 2012

Walid Jumblatt: Take Me to The King


Jumblatt declines to talk about the impact the appointment of Bandar Bin Sultan as head of Saudi intelligence will have on Lebanon. (Photo: Haitham Moussawi)
Published Thursday, July 26, 2012
Unlike other politicians in Lebanon, MP Walid Jumblatt does not feel that his security is threatened. In an interview with Al-Akhbar, he says that he cannot wait to set an appointment with the Saudi king and that his increasing criticism of Hezbollah will not affect the alliance keeping the Najib Mikati government in power.

Mukhtara - Normally, when head of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt leaves his Beirut residence in Clemenceau to his historic home in Mukhtara, it means he is on a security alert. But this time he left Beirut to his stronghold in the Chouf mountains, “to escape the heat of summer, no more, no less,” as he puts it.

Security measures around his castle of many mansions attest to the lack of anything out of the ordinary. “I receive security reports which I do not believe. They come from the same source. It is the same fax and gets distributed to everyone,” he explains.

In his office, packed with mostly Soviet-era memorabilia, he keeps two AK-47s near his chair. They seem ready to be used at any moment. “But they are souvenirs. There is no need to oil our weapons. Who will we fight?”

The usually anxious man is not concerned these days. He is more worried about renovating the house once used as a headquarters for the military wing of his party, than about the blaze that could set fire to the country at any moment now.
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
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