BEIRUT (Archyde.com) – Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said on Thursday that Iran had gained more influence in Lebanon because of the country’s abandonment by Arab states, ramped up criticism of Hezbollah, and hinted that Tehran wanted to obliterate the Lebanese state.
Jumblatt added in an interview with (MTV) that no one can fill the void left by the Sunni leader Saad Hariri, who announced this week to stay away from the political arena.
Hariri had referred to factors that prompted him to make this decision, including Iranian influence in Lebanon.
Jumblatt has intensified his criticism of the Iranian-backed Shi’ite group Hezbollah, and said Lebanon was not a missile launcher, referring to the group’s huge arsenal, which was established by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in 1982.
“The Arabs abandoned Lebanon under the pretext of Hezbollah’s personal and political attack on them, and we are the victims of this conflict,” Jumblatt said.
Jumblatt likened the situation in Lebanon now under Iranian influence to the 1990s, when the country was under the control of its neighbor, Syria, during the rule of the late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad.
He added that the face of the dispute between Iran and the Syrian government is that President Hafez al-Assad did not abolish the Lebanese entity and did not abolish the state.
On Monday, Hariri, who served as prime minister for three times, announced that he would suspend his role in political life and not run in the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for May, expressing his conviction that “there is no room for any positive opportunity for Lebanon under Iranian influence.”
Jumblatt also said it was impossible for Lebanon to implement a 2004 United Nations Security Council resolution that required the disarmament of Hezbollah, which is also one of several demands made by Gulf Arab states as conditions for improving relations with Beirut.
