Jumblatt verbal salvos target various fronts

Recent comments by Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt have raised eyebrows, as observers wonder whether the Druze politician is weighing in on the simmering cold war between President Michel Sleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun. When Jumblatt addressed a rally in Sofar last weekend, he singled out Hezbollah for criticism, while also highlighting his long-standing aversion to a political role for military figures. Sources close to the PSP leader said the comments on the resistance didn’t represent a bid to draw closer to the March 14 coalition, or gain the favor of Saudi Arabia. Instead, the Druze leader’s remarks represented a message to Hezbollah that Jumblatt’s PSP – at any level of the party – has been unable to work in harmony with Aoun, ostensibly a partner in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Najib Mikati. Jumblatt, they said, has held a number of meetings with his former March 14 allies, but the discussions inevitably falter when it comes to the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons. March 14 wants the resistance disarmed, while Jumblatt prefers conducting dialogue, on a national defense strategy, to address the issue. Jumblatt also returned to an old theme, namely criticism of the military. Jumblatt made a derogatory reference to an “[Army] commander,” without mentioning anyone by name. One would expect Jumblatt to drop such rhetoric, with Sleiman, a former Army commander, one of his chief allies in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Najib Mikati. But sources familiar with the issue say that Jumblatt took the step to express his anger at receiving news that Aoun’s son-in-law, General Shamel Roukoz, was being considered as the next commander of the Army when Army commander General Jean Kahwagi’s term expires later this year. According to Jumblatt’s sources, the PSP has nothing to do with such a move, which they said is being negotiated by various parties making up the Cabinet. As for the Sleiman-Aoun dispute, reconciliation efforts continue, but with little hope that a solution is in sight. Former Minister Wadih Khazen told The Daily Star that the efforts, spearheaded by the Maronite League and other groups, are continuing on a periodic basis. But they are confronting a number of obstacles, led by the refusal of either man to back down on the thorny issue of civil service appointments, particularly for key spots for Christians. Khazen said the impasse is only becoming more difficult because an informal campaign for next year’s parliamentary elections has begun. Sleiman has emphatically supported a revamped election law for next year’s polls, but Khazen said the latest indications pointed in the direction of districting based once again on the 1960 law, but with slight amendments to certain districts.