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July 26, 2006 No.1213 Lebanese Druze Leader Walid Jumblatt on Al-Arabiya TV: Do Lebanese Really Agree That the Battle of the [Islamic] Nation Should Be Launched From Lebanon?; I Was First to Warn of the Iranian-Syrian Alliance; I Have the Right to Challenge Nasrallah's Heroism The following are excerpts from an interview with Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on July 20, 2006 [1]. TO VIEW THIS CLIP, VISIT: http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1201. Walid Jumblatt: "Hassan Nasrallah made the decision to go to war without consulting anyone." [...] "Today, the Lebanese state has become a kind of Red...

Lebanese Druze Leader Walid Jumblatt on Al-Arabiya TV: Do Lebanese Really Agree That the Battle of the [Islamic] Nation Should Be Launched From Lebanon?; I Was First to Warn of the Iranian-Syrian Alliance; I Have the Right to Challenge Nasrallah's Heroism The following are excerpts from an interview with Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on July 20, 2006.(1) TO VIEW THIS CLIP, VISIT: http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1201 . Walid Jumblatt: "Hassan Nasrallah made the decision to go to war without consulting anyone." [...] "Today, the Lebanese state has become a kind of Red Cross. If tomorrow a cease-fire...

The relations between Russia and the Shiite's religious leadership in Lebanon started to develop in the beginning of the seventies. The spiritual leader of the Lebanese Shia community, Imam Moussa Al-Sadr, visited Moscow in 1972 and asked Soviet authorities to issue humanitarian aid to his people. At the same time cooperation between the Marxist factions of the PLO that were active in Lebanon and Soviet military intelligence – GRU, intensified greatly. Several soviet officers (speaking fluent Arabic) even visited Palestinian terrorist training camps in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon between 1972-1975. Using their connections in PLO they managed to establish...

Overthrow president, Syrians urged By Patrick Bishop in Moukhtara (Filed: 16/01/2006) Walid Jumblatt seemed admirably composed for a man whose name had just appeared on a hit list of Lebanese public figures. "The whole of Lebanon is on the death list, not only me," said the Druze leader and anti-Syrian figurehead. "The Syrian regime will not accept easily its defeat last year when the Lebanese people obliged them to get out. The regular forces left but [its] agents are still here." Mr Jumblatt, 56, has taken precautions. For the moment he is not leaving his rocky domain in the Chouf...

The Paris-based Intelligence Online has reported on its internet site that late Lebanon's premier Rafik Hariri managed to record the threats made by President Bashar Al Assad at their last face-to-face meeting in Damascus on a spy pen likely provided by the French secret service. Hariri had provided copies of the threat to U.S. President Bush, French President Jacques Chirac and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf shortly before he was assassinated in a huge blast on Feb. 14, said the newsletter that specializes in intelligence affairs. The Assad-Hariri meeting was held in the Syrian capital a week before the Lebanese parliament...

MUKHTARA, Lebanon - Walid Jumblatt, the most prominent anti-Syrian voice in Lebanon, is holed up in his ancestral mountain palace, planning strategy with his allies behind its high gates, out of fear he may be marked for assassination like his late ally, the former prime minister killed in a bomb blast. Jumblatt, a Druse warlord turned politician, is even reported to have packed off his 22-year-old son to France to ensure a survivor from his immediate family to carry his mantle if he is killed. He denies that's his motive, saying his son, Taymoor, is just finishing his studies. "I...

JERUSALEM – Lebanese security officials backed by Syria carried out the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who knew his life was in danger, a Lebanese opposition leader told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview today. "Lebanese security services handled by Syrian security were behind the assassination of Hariri," said Walid Jumblatt, a leading opposition figure in Lebanon. He said in a meeting with Hariri two weeks ago the former prime minister said he felt he was in danger. "Hariri said something bad was going to happen and that it is either going to be you or me." Hariri, along...

ALARM - Lebanon: the opposition announces the "insurrection for independence " BEIRUT - the Lebanese opposition antisyrienne, joined together at a plenary sitting, announced Friday evening the "insurrection for independence "and claimed a" government of transition "to supervise the Syrian withdrawal. MORE...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A top Lebanese politician enraged the American embassy in Beirut Monday by saying he hoped the next attack on the number two in the Defense Department would prove fatal. Druze leader Walid Jumblatt described Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz as a "virus" who needed to be destroyed, a day after the American emerged unscathed from a guerrilla rocket attack on the fortified Baghdad hotel where he was staying. The U.S. embassy described Jumblatt's remarks as "outrageous." The Druze chief and head of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party said in a statement he hoped Wolfowitz, who he criticized as...

AN influential Lebanese politician and leader of its Druze community triggered US outrage today when he expressed regret US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was unhurt in a Baghdad rocket attack. "We hope the firing will be more precise and efficient (next time), so we get rid of this microbe and people like him in Washington who are spreading disorder in Arab lands, Iraq and Palestine," Walid Jumblatt said in a statement. Jumblatt, who is also the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, called Wolfowitz a "friend of Ariel Sharon", the hardline Israeli prime minister, "and one of the main...