BEIRUT: Low levels of military support to Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar Assad highlights Western aims to destroy the Arab state, Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt said in an interview published Wednesday.
“The West will not change its position on what is going on in Syria. They want it destroyed,” Jumblatt told the local daily Al-Akhbar, citing poor arms supplies to Syrian rebels.
“Arms to the opposition only enters in trickles and only aims to prolong the war, which means more destruction,” he added.
“The Syrian regime will not fall, but Syria will be destroyed,” he said.
In response to a question, Jumblatt said he supported the Nusra Front, a radical Islamist group, against the government of President Bashar Assad.
“I am with the Nusra Front against the Syrian regime,” he said, while stressing that the Syrian people have the right to deal with the “devil” to fight Assad, with the exception of Israel.
The Nusra Front is a Syrian opposition brigade that has been labeled a terrorist group by the United States.
On his anti-Assad stances that made him lose an overwhelming support of the Druze in Syria, Jumblatt said in his wide-ranging interview: “I don’t care ... my position is to protect them [Druze] as the Alawites will return to their mountains while the Druze live in a sea of Sunnis.”
Turning to the thorny issue of an electoral law for the June elections, Jumblatt blamed Hezbollah for aiming to win an elections majority that excludes him.
“The various opinions by the March 8 coalition toward an electoral law, appears to be an attempt by Hezbollah to win a parliamentary majority without me,” Jumblatt said.
He described a recent electoral plan put forward by Speaker Nabih Berri as “Hezbollah’s proposal.”
“The latest proposal by Mr. Berri is a Hezbollah proposal because it gives the party a parliamentary majority without me."
“And for that reason, I will boycott any parliamentary session that does not look into a consensus proposal,” he said.
The PSP leader said a postponement of the elections would only be tolerated if it was a technical delay “because any political delay takes us to the unknown and hits the economy as well as investor confidence in Lebanon.”