Druze leader Walid Jumblat on Monday launched a verbal attack on the opposition, terming its leaders "kids" controlled by Syrian President Bashar Assad that seeks to topple the Lebanese government. "Tomorrow is a normal day of work," Jumblat said, calling on the Lebanese to disregard the opposition's call for a general strike on Tuesday.
He noted that the army would "prevent sabotage. The state would not permit the blocking of roads" by protestors.
"We had enough from last summer's war," Jumblat said, according to Naharnet. The Druze leader criticized the sit-in organized by the opposition in downtown Beirut since Dec. 1 in a bid to topple the government of Premier Fouad Saniora.
"Hizbullah was used by Iran and Syria to buttress Bashar's Assad bargaining with Dan Halutz," the retired Israeli chief of staff, according to Jumblat. "Isn't it shameful to use the resistance (Hizbullah's armed wing) as a card at the expense of south Lebanon residents, at the expense of Lebanon?" Jumblat asked.
Jumblat, addressing Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said "I advise you to accelerate your party's approval of the international tribunal because in three weeks we have a major event. The third anniversary of the Hariri assassination."
"We wish it would be a binding occasion for all the Lebanese. We don't want it to be an occasion for discord when the masses head to downtown Beirut to declare their opposition to (Syrian) hegemony," Jumblat added.
