Jumblatt claims Assad listens to 'nobody'

The National Struggle Front head and Druze leader  Walid Jumblatt believes that Syria is at risk of plunging deeper into violence and a possible civil war as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “listens to nobody” inside or outside the country calling for change. Jumblatt said he had no contact with the Syrian leader since meeting him in Damascus seven months ago in the early weeks of Syria's uprising. "I am more and more concerned about the possibility that Syria will plunge into more violence and...maybe civil war," Jumblatt told Reuters. He indicated that the longer the violence rages, the greater the threat of rifts between Syria's Sunni Muslim majority and Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, citing reports of sectarian killings in Homs, a mixed city which is also a stronghold of protesters and insurgents. Jumblatt said that from the start of the crisis in March Assad had ignored calls from the United States, China, Russia and his former ally Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to defuse the revolt by swiftly enacting political reform. Instead, Assad blamed a "conspiracy" against Syria and attempted to crush the popular uprising by force. "There was a very close political and family relationship between Bashar and Erdogan. But...he listens to nobody," Jumblatt said. "Up till now he has refused to listen to the rightful demands of the Syrian people for a new Syria." Jumblatt told Reuters that an Arab League initiative, which calls for Assad to withdraw troops from protest centers, free detainees and start talks with the opposition, offered the only hope of a solution. However, he believes that prospects are bleak "unless a miracle happens." There is a "slow but sure decaying of the Syrian situation. It's fatal," he added. On a different note, Jumblatt stressed “we have to insist on trying to isolate Lebanon from the Syrian problem. There is a need for the Lebanese to talk to each other and mainly the leaders of the main ... Shiite and Sunni communities." Criticizing his former ally Hariri for rejecting political dialogue unless Hezbollah hands its weapons to the state, as other Lebanese armed groups did after Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, Jumblatt said Hariri's stance "leads nowhere." In relevant context, Jumblatt indicated “Although we have a different point of view on Syria, I'm against polarizing internal policy (in Lebanon).” He also said he had called on Syria's Druze community, which numbers around 400,000 of a population of 23 million, to distance itself from the crackdown on protests if possible. Around 100 Druze soldiers and police have been killed "repressing the people," he said. "What can they do? Am I appealing to them to desert? No. To stay at home, if they can."