The last battles of Walid Jumblatt

Call of the homeland
Walid Jumblatt has not yet handed the flag to Timur. When he attends the session. It is true that he became the former president of the “Progressive Socialist Party” and the “democratic meeting”, but he remains the first opinion that imposes obedience and determines the path and takes the decision. From Lebanon to Syria, Jordan and Palestine, its moves are extended. The last thing that surprised the Lebanese was his announcement on Thursday, June 26 in Clemenceau and next to him, Timur, who sat silently, handing the “party” weapon to the Lebanese army. Shortly after him, the Secretary -General of Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, announced his adherence to weapons and his dependency on the regime of the jurist in Iran and affirms, “We will not be silent forever and are able to defeat Israel.”
For Walid Jumblatt, it was not possible to demand Hezbollah to hand over its weapon to the Lebanese army while it kept quantities of weapons. Since Hezbollah began the war of support after the Flood of Al -Aqsa on October 7, 2023, it has claimed its demand to stop this war and to return to the armistice agreement signed in 1949 between Lebanon and Israel, and by applying Taif in terms of a decision to resolve all militias, including Hezbollah as a rule. But what was surprised by the Lebanese Jumblatt, was his revelation of the quantities of weapons that he had and their delivery to the Lebanese army.

Between the sheikh and the week

Between Walid Jumblatt and Sheikh Naim Qasim, the scene in Lebanon was divided between two contradictory directions: people who are returned from war and people of the war. While Jumblatt appeared as if he was returning from all the ancient wars he fought in Lebanon, Qasim seemed as if he was ready for new wars that are indifferent to what the other Lebanese people wanted, or the disasters that the wars that dragged his party to Lebanon.

Jumblatt may be abandoned by the weapon paper so that it does not arouse against it and turns into an argument and an excuse for the “party” so that it does not hand over its weapon. It may be a pre -emptive attempt to reveal another party and leak information, for example, about this weapon, and put it in front of an embarrassing situation. Therefore, he went to reveal his own way of this matter, which appears to have been in a secret way between him and the President of the Republic, Joseph Aoun, and the leadership of the army and General Rudolph Haykal.

Defenders and rifles no longer have to be necessary

But what is remarkable about the words of Jumblatt is many things, then you must stop:

His announcement that he discussed the issue of weapons with the President of the Republic when he visited him on February 27, congratulating in Baabda Palace. On that day, Jumblatt said: “As I previously understood during my meetings with some Arab and ambulance officials, there is an agenda coupled with a reform for the aid that we used to obtain at a certain stage of history. Therefore, I do not think that we will get it without a necessary reform, and the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister came with a team, I think he can do these matters.” In response to a question whether the weapon is among the conditions? He answered: “It is within the Taif Agreement, and the armistice agreement is one of the most important items mentioned in the department’s speech. I believe that Lebanon will be under pressure to change this agreement, while I advise and adhere to it personally.” It was as if he was reaffirming this talk again.
Jumblatt said that the weapons were stored in a “location in the Mukhtara”, and that he asked the president to receive them and that the delivery took place about three weeks ago, but it chose to confirm in order to preserve stability, “as the wars were burning east and west, and here they have now calmed down, praise be to God.” The question is why this process happened with such secrecy? As for the announcement of it and the depiction of the delivery process served the strategy of the New Testament that the decision to limit the weapons in the hands of the state is final and no return to it, and others should comply with this decision?
Jumblatt revealed why and how this weapon came. He said that he gradually came after the events of May 2008, when there was a great tension and a limited war between the “Socialist Progressive Party” and “Hezbollah”. And he worked hard with everyone, with the state, and even with the “party” itself to stop that war. Without disclosure, he said, “The weapon was found, so it was divided by it, and the other section was deployed in some areas. I worked to collect this weapon as a central, so I gathered its majority. The question here is how this weapon was bought and collected after the May 7 events? Did he enter from outside Lebanon? Or was it obtained from weapons dealers inside? What are the state agencies working so as not to reveal this matter?
Peace and weapons in one land
It is also noteworthy in this field that Jumblatt has been coming out since August 2009 from the ranks of March 14 and announces its position in the center, and President Naguib Mikati calls the formation of the government after the coup against the government of President Saad Hariri in early 2011, while his party was buying weapons and collecting it to defend his regions. Some events have revealed such a matter through some of the problems that took place, and during the tour of the “Free Patriotic Movement”, Gibran Bassil in Cabrchmon, and the issue of exercises by the party was revealed after the killing of one of its members during the training.
Jumblatt linked the step of handing over the weapons to the developments of the war in the region, where he considered that Iran lost and that America and Israel won. “Today, Israel, the West and America triumphed over … There is today a new page that was opened in the Middle East, and the previous means of confrontation have been folded and no longer valid. All weapons must be in the hands of the state. Therefore, if there is a Lebanese party or Lebanese parties, or even non -Lebanese parties, possessing weapons, I hope that this weapon will be delivered in the appropriate form and the appropriate way.” This will make Hezbollah accuse it, as others accuse it, of being betting on the results of the Israeli war, and that it is a supporter of the new Middle East to which Israel operates.
Jumblatt did not link the handover of the “party” weapon with Israel’s occupation of a number of sites inside Lebanon, calling for the handing over of the “party” weapon first because it does not affect the issue of Israel’s withdrawal or not, stressing his friendship and alliance with President Nabih Berri. In this regard, it may also reflect the position of President Berri, who was keen during the twelve days of days between Iran and Israel to assert that Hezbollah will not interfere in this war 200 by 200. Jumblatt reaffirmed the implementation of Resolution 1701, which provides for the disarmament of the “party” by returning to what was stipulated in the Taif Agreement as well.
The bomb, which was blown by Jumblatt, was not only in detecting weapons and its delivery, but by confirming that the Shebaa Farms are Syrian. Consequently, he wanted to cut any link between the survival of Israel on these farms with the arms of the survival of weapons with Hezbollah. He was conclusive in the two issues.

Many reasons for atonement

If the first responses to Jumblatt focused on the issue of its atonement because it “abandoned” the Shebaa farms, then questioning its role and positions will extend to his accusation that he is in a state of waiting for the Israel project to divide The Middle East. This was what he said after President Aoun’s visit in February when he was asked to receive the weapon. It may also be said that Jumblatt did not hand over the weapon and that what he said was merely not proven, and that he still retains his weapons, especially since he said that he did not collect the whole weapon but most of it. After the war in 1991, he announced that he had handed his weapons to the state, and that he returned to Syria the weapon he received from it, and today he announces once again the handing over of a weapon of his collection after the events of May 7, or he was with him. Consequently, this talk may be an argument so that Hezbollah does not hand over its weapon.
This Jutbalati announcement may be the delivery of the weapon for fear that any person, or any group close to it and from the Druze environment, will fabricate security events, or drawing into problems on the ground, which he rejects and does not want it and realizes that it is a danger to the Druze who face difficult conditions in Syria as well. Especially in light of the differences in the trends between him and the sheikhs of the mind in Syria and Israel, Hijri and Amin Tarif ruled, whose positions are demanding the demand for Israeli or international protection for the Druze, supporting within the Druze environment. He wanted to be the previous battles he fought, or those that were afraid of their occurrence after 2008 and prepared for them, the last of the battles imposed on him, and he tries to actually go out to his political and military retirement, and hand over the flag to his heir Timur. This is because what he was able to do with his son by keeping pace with a path that he was studying in leading the sect, the party and political action, he was not able to live with his father, Kamal Jumblatt, who ended with the assassination of a thunderbolt on March 16, 1977, as if he wanted to set a separate line between the past, the present and the future and leave to Timur a clean land without mines.
Jumblatt Declaration to hand over the weapon came after it was received on June 19 in Clemenceau, the American delegate, Tom Barak, who is waiting for the Lebanese authority in response to Washington’s demand to disarm the party in conjunction with the Israeli withdrawal. Jumblatt’s step falls within the American strategy and can be supportive of the authority’s direction in its response to the American demand. It was remarkable that you were acquitted to Jumblatt with this visit and not other Lebanese politicians after it was extracted with his relationship with the former delegate Morgan Ortigos. A meeting suggests that even if Walid Jumblatt thinks about retirement, there are those who consider that he cannot retire. With a weapon and without a weapon, its role and presence remains.

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