Jumblatt: Some want al-Qaeda in Lebanon

The leader of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Lebanon, Walid Jumblatt, commented Monday on  the tense security situation in Tripoli one of its residents was arrested on suspicions of being linked to an armed extremist network. “Is it required to give the impression that Lebanon has turned into a Salafi base to prevent  help and  humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees in Lebanon...to arrest activists and hand them over to the Syrian authorities where their fate would be certain death?” he said. In his weekly column in the newspaper "El-Anbaa" published by the PSP, he stated: "It is not the first time Tripoli experienced such tension and violence and it is also not the first time that  lessons from this difficult experience are extracted to avoid its recurrence and to prevent more problems in the region." He added: “We cannot separate the events from the insistence of some security services, with Syrian influence, to consider Salafism an absolute evil , I would like to ask the geniuses of these services to explain to us what is meant by Salafi? Why do they always insist on inflating the threat of Salafists? Does it call for extremism and intolerance? Does it have a powerful presence in Lebanon? Is it confined to  Sunni Muslims? Is it confined to religion? Have we never seen senior analysts and thinkers in the conservative right or the left radicals also fall into the trap of extremism which is a kind of Salafism and intolerance?” “Why insist on the import of al-Qaeda at any cost to Lebanon? Is it also used as a bogeyman to suppress any internal voice that supports the Syrian revolution and the Syrian people? According to recent events, I think the next step of the Lebanese authorities will be looking for the new leader of al-Qaeda to give him a formal request to open a representative office in Beirut to prove its point of view," he said. He continued: "Why the insistence of some countries and political forces and the Lebanese security services on the grounds that the policy of violence promoted by the Syrian regime is always a success, while events prove daily that the Syrian people will not give up their demands whatever the cost?" "Why the insistence of these countries and political forces in support of the Syrian regime to reject any interim agreement to solve  the current crisis rather than sticking to the ruling regime which has destroyed cities and villages of Syria and increased the number of Syrian refugees to one million in addition to tens of thousands of refugees to neighbouring countries as well as tens of thousands of political prisoners and missing persons, and of course thousands of dead and wounded?" he added. He called for calm to return to Tripoli, which "cannot be achieved through accusations". He added: “It is better to have a political settlement and to open dialogue to reach reconciliation and put an end to this tragedy that is repeated from time to time, and then start a comprehensive development plan for Tripoli. Moreover, national dialogue should resume reaching a national defence plan under the state, and always on the basis of non-use of weapons inside the country." Clashes took place in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, leading to at least five dead and 13 wounded.