BEIRUT: Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) leader Walid Jumblatt warned that events in Syria might plunge the country into civil war, while reiterating the need for Damascus to abide by the Arab League initiative and calling on Iran and Russia to help end the crisis in Lebanon’s neighbor. “The continuing bloodshed in Syria might plunge the country into civil war which would have destructive results,” Jumblatt warned in his weekly statement to Al-Anbaa newspaper to be published Tuesday, adding that the Arab League initiative needed to be strictly implemented as it served as the only means for a democratic transition in Syria.

Jumblatt, who has intensified his calls on President Bashar Assad to end the crackdown and implement reforms, also repeated his call for Syria’s closest allies, Iran and Russia, to undertake a political initiative that would stop the violence in that country.

The PSP leader also said that describing the popular movement as part of a conspiracy does not negate the people’s legitimate calls for freedom.

“If there were mobs dubbed as terrorists and trying to exploit the chaotic environment which existed as a result of adopting security and oppressive measures in the face of legitimate political and social demands, it does not negate that there are nations that want to achieve freedom and democracy,” Jumblatt said.

Syria and its allies have maintained that the 10-month uprising in the country is part of a conspiracy aimed at targeting Assad’s rule. Assad vowed last week to continue his crackdown against who he described as “terrorists.”

The U.N. estimates over 5,000 people have been killed in the crackdown by Damascus since mid-March 2011.

Jumblatt also said that describing anti-government protesters as terrorists and as part of a conspiracy would undermine the cause of all “legitimate liberation movements,” adding that protesters in Bahrain, Tunisia and Egypt were not “terrorists” and those in Syria “are certainly not either.”

“If [protesters in Arab countries] are not terrorists, it is unjust to consider the children of Deraa and Hamza Khatib and the rest as terrorists,” he said.

“As for the tens of thousands of freedom fighters, activists and citizens of defenseless women and children peacefully facing oppression, they are certainly not terrorists,” Jumblatt added.

Syrian authorities have repeatedly blamed “armed gangs” for the violence in the country and claim there is a plot backed by foreign powers aimed at toppling Assad.