BEIRUT: Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt is mending ties with old allies in his former, much larger parliamentary bloc, 10 months after he dissolved the coalition, sources close to Jumblatt said Tuesday.

The sources, who spoke to The Daily Star on condition of anonymity, said Jumblatt’s efforts to restore ties with his old partners aimed at “playing a pivotal role in the next stage as well as strengthening his internal position.”

In January Jumblatt dissolved his parliamentary bloc, the Democratic Gathering, after four lawmakers from the 11-member alliance decided not to back his candidate for the post of prime minister.

In its place, Jumblatt established the National Struggle Front, the name of the parliamentary bloc his late father, Kamal Jumblatt, had led.

The four lawmakers that quit the Democratic Gathering who voted against Prime Minister Najib Mikati were MPs Marwan Hamadeh, Henry Helou, Antoine Saad and Fouad al-Saad.

Jumblatt’s latest steps toward rapprochement included dining with the four lawmakers Sunday, according to the sources.

“Relations were not severed between us. At the end of the day, we remain comrades,” a PSP source said, pointing to the decades-old struggle alongside Walid Jumblatt.

Hamadeh, for his part, owed the reconciliation to the “new stances” adopted by Jumblatt’s National Struggle Front.

“The Democratic Gathering was neither disbanded by a decision from Walid Jumblatt nor from the four lawmakers in this Gathering,” Hamadeh said.

Hamadeh played down the significance of the severing of ties with Jumblatt. “The whole issue is that we met after a short breakup,” he said.