BEIRUT: Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt has criticized the recent gathering by the March 14 coalition on the occasion of the seventh commemoration of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

“The contents of the speeches differed very little from last year’s apart from the [section dealing] with developments in Syria,” Jumblatt told An-Nahar newspaper in an interview published Thursday.

During a March 14 rally at Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure center Tuesday commemorating the seventh year since the assassination of Hariri, his son, Future Movement head MP Saad Hariri called on Hezbollah to begin steps to surrender its arms to Lebanese authorities in order to relieve the Lebanese people of the danger of violence.

In his interview with An-Nahar, Jumblatt, who said the speech had been a repetition of what had been said about “Hezbollah’s weapons,” said “what is needed at the end is that we all sit down.”

During the BIEL event Tuesday, March 14 General Secretariat Fares Soueid also read a letter by the Syrian National Council promising to establish the best of ties between Lebanon and its neighbor after the fall of President Bashar Assad.

Although not commenting on the contents of the speech, Jumblatt said it would “have been better had a leading member of the Syrian National Council come to Beirut and addressed in person in front of the audience rather that Fares Soueid.”

The PSP leader mocked Wednesday the drafting of a new Constitution in Syria and the canceling of Article 8 which states that Syria’s Baath Party is the only ruling party in the country.

“The Baath Party is cloning itself by itself, the best thing is that it leaves,” he said. Jumblatt added that Russia and China have insisted that any settlement should keep Assad in his post.

“The more blood is shed [in Syria], the worse the situation gets,” Jumbatt said.

Jumblatt also called Wednesday for a new Taif Accord between the Lebanese, noting that the agreement which ended Lebanon’s 1975-90 Civil War has expired.

“The Taif [Accord] is over, we are in need of a new deal between Sunnis and Shiites,” said Jumblatt during a seminar on the rise of Islamists and fundamentalists to power in the Arab world.

He added that the Lebanese were in a need of new pact that would regulate ties and power sharing among various Lebanese factions.