Jumblatt says Lebanon-Israel conflict should end

Jumblatt: After 30 years, Lebanon deserves rest; calls on country to reclaim Shebaa Farms peacefully.

jumblatt 224.88 (photo credit: Associated Press)
jumblatt 224.88
(photo credit: Associated Press)
The time has come to take Lebanon out of the Israeli-Arab conflict, Druse leader Walid Jumblatt said in an interview with the pan-Arab satellite television station Al Arabiya, Thursday overnight. In the interview quoted by Israel Radio, Jumblatt said that Lebanon should rest after being in a state of war with Israel for thirty years. Jumblatt called on his country's citizenry to join forces in order to return the Shebaa Farms to Lebanese sovereignty using peaceful means. The contested farms are a small plot of land located on the convergence of three borders - those of Israel, Lebanon and Syria. Referring to Hizbullah, Jumblatt condemned the group vehemently, calling it "a division of the [Iranian] Revolutionary Guards," adding that the organization's sole role is keeping the Syrian regime in place and protecting Iran's nuclear plan. Jumblatt comes from an ancient Druse family that settled in Lebanon in the 16th Century. He is considered the worldwide Druse leader. His father, Kamal Jumblatt, a major political, cultural, and philosophical figure of the Middle-East, was assassinated in Lebanon in 1977 at the hand of Syrian agents.