BEIRUT: Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt Monday described the recent speech by Syrian President Bashar Assad as detached from reality.

“Away from the classy atmospheres in the Opera House, Assad’s speech was completely detached from reality,” said Jumblatt in his weekly stance to the PSP-affiliated Al-Anbaa website.

The PSP leader also said Assad’s Sunday speech was repetitive and reminiscent of the speech he made at the beginning of the conflict.

“The major difference Assad has missed between his two speeches is the death toll in Syria,” said Jumblatt.

“The number of casualties when Assad gave his first address was 3,000 while latest estimates place the figure at over 60,000 dead,” added the PSP leader.

Jumblatt also mocked the “so-called political initiative” put forth by Assad to end his country’s conflict and said the Syrian president’s suggestion shows “his detachment from reality has reached advance stages.”

Jumblatt argued that the proposal put forward by Assad was nothing more than a number of steps that were suspiciously implemented in the past.

“The new constitution, superficial reform, and illusory elections were carried out during the previous phase over the bodies of the Syrian people,” said the PSP leader.

Assad's speech was supposed to declare a new peace plan but the president offered no concessions and dismissed the prospect of negotiations with Syrian opposition groups.

“Assad’s proposals are now nothing more than soap bubbles because they are no longer address the core of the problem,” said Jumblatt, echoing Assad’s description of the Arab spring as “soap bubbles.”

The PSP leader also called on Lebanese rivals to resume communication among each other and seek a way out of Lebanon’s crisis, instead of waiting for the outcome of Syria’s conflict.

“It might be useful for Lebanese rivals to start thinking about meeting instead of waiting for the outcome of the Syrian crisis and bet on it,” said Jumblatt.