Fneish: Hezbollah used to Jumblatt's fickleness

State Minister Mohammad Fneish said Tuesday that Hezbollah was not surprised at MP Walid Jumblatt’s recent comments about his relationship with it, adding that the resistance party has grown accustomed to Jumblatt’s changes of heart. "We don't want to comment on the matter, but we are not surprised and are used to such changes and variations in stances,” Fneish, a Hezbollah official, was quoted by local media as saying. Jumblatt, who last year became part of an alliance with the March 8 coalition, said Saturday that the alliance could not endure at the expense of the state, the army or security, in a clear reference to Hezbollah’s insistence on retaining its arms. “This vague partnership under the slogan ‘the Army, people and resistance,’ cannot continue at the expense of the state, the Army, security, economy and destiny,” Jumblatt said Saturday in a speech during an Iftar in the Chouf, Mount Lebanon. Hezbollah has long maintained that the tripartite formula of the “Army, people and resistance” is the only means of defending Lebanon against Israeli aggression. In an indirect response to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, who has said that the state is incapable of leading the resistance, Jumblatt said: “The Lebanese Army, both soldiers and officers, does not lack the competence and professionalism needed to gradually [incorporate] the resistance’s arms in line with a plan that takes into account the resistance’s security concerns.” Although reports have indicated that Jumblatt might return to the March 14 coalition due to his rift with Hezbollah, Progressive Socialist Party spokesman Rami Rayess said Monday that the party has not decided to rejoin Hezbollah’s rivals. Fneish also touched on the crisis in Syria, saying that although the resistance is stronger than ever, the resistance axis as a whole has been weakened due to Syria’s preoccupation with internal issues. "The resistance is stronger than ever and knows how to improve its fighting capabilities. [But] when we look at the equation of conflict, we see that one side, meaning Syria, is preoccupied with domestic problems, so the equation is surely weakened,” he said. (daily star)