Walid Junblat urges Hizballah to return its focus towards Israel

Lebanese Druze leader and head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Junblat expressed his current frustration with Hizballah unusually frankly in an recent interview with the Associated Press. A main reason (which is not featured in that article) why Junblat is pressuring Hizballah is also the unwillingness of Hizballah's March 8 camp to elect a new president by denying quorum. Junblat, who has proposed his own "centrist" candidate Henri Helou, has declared he won't vote neither for Michel Aoun, the unofficial candidate of March 8, nor for Samir Geagea, the candidate of March 14. Junblat's parliamentary block holds a swing vote in the National Assembly.

AP Interview: Druse Head Scorns Hezbollah on Syria

by Bassem Mroue, Associated Press

The decision by Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group to join the civil war in neighboring Syria and fight along President Bashar Assad's forces was a historic and moral "mistake" toward the Syrian people, a leading Lebanese politician has said.

The harsh criticism by Walid Jumblatt, who leads Lebanon's minority Druse sect, reflects his increasing pessimism about the bloody conflict next door, now in its fourth year.

Although he leads a minority sect, Jumblatt is a pillar and a mainstay in Lebanese politics and is often referred to as the country's "kingmaker" because of his small bloc's track record of tipping the balance during key votes in parliament.

"Hezbollah intervened in Syria and did not care about the Lebanese (public) opinion," Jumblatt told The Associated Press during a recent interview at his home in Beirut. "This is a historical and moral mistake toward the Syrian people." (...)

 Now, the Syrian civil war will be "very long," Jumblatt said. Instead of fighting in Syria, he said Hezbollah should have focused on archenemy Israel.

"I say that the guns should be directed toward the Israeli enemy," Jumblatt added. (...)