The former leader of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), Walid Joumblatt. (Credit: National News Agency)
Lebanese Druze leader Walid Joumblatt asserted Sunday from Ain al-Tineh, where he met with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, accompanied by his son Teymour, that he does not accept “negotiations under Israeli fire.”
His remarks come just days after the appointment of Ambassador Simon Karam to head the Lebanese negotiating delegation within the cease-fire supervision Mechanism.
After his meeting with Berri, the former head of the Progressive Socialist Party said that Karam is “an experienced negotiator.”
“Nevertheless, we do not accept negotiations to take place under fire. We negotiate under the banner of [Israeli] withdrawal and the cease-fire,” he added.
This is the same formula used by Berri to comment on the inclusion of a civilian in the Mechanism, while his ally, Hezbollah, criticized it, denouncing it as a “free concession” to Israel.
“We are in favor of strengthening the army and the measures it is taking south of the Litani regarding the monopoly on arms and the assertion of the state's sovereignty in southern Lebanon before extending this approach to the entire Lebanese territory,” Joumblatt further said.
“We are committed to the truce, even if the conditions of this truce have changed between yesterday and today. Political, military, and technological developments have upended everything, but there are fundamental principles to which we remain faithful: land and sovereignty,” he said.
