Walid WallyJumblat
... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling...
on Wednesday declared the death of the Taef Agreement which ended the 1975-1990 civil war in Leb, calling on Syria's ruling Baath Party to leave power.
At a seminar organized by the Friends of Kamal Jumblat Association on the topic of "The Rise of Islamists and Fundamentalism to Power in the Arab Countries", Jumblat reassured that "the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya -- which were liberated from the chains of the regime -- are not in danger."
"But we fear for Syria, where we heard about a miracle today, which was the issuing of a new constitution and abolishing Article 8" of the old constitution, which stipulates that the ruling Baath Party is the "leader of the state and society."
"The Baath Party is replicating itself and the best thing for it to do is to step down," Jumblat added.
Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
has decreed to hold a referendum later this month for a new constitution that would effectively end nearly 50 years of single party rule, state media said Wednesday.
"President Bashir al-Assad issued today a decree setting Sunday, February 26, as the date for the referendum on the proposed constitution," the official SANA news agency reported.
Assad has said the constitution would usher in a "new era" for Syria, the agency reported.
Under the new charter, freedom is "a sacred right" and "the people will govern the people" in a multi-party democratic system based on Islamic law, state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported.
Criticizing Russia and China, which have recently used a rare double veto at the U.N. Security Council to block a resolution condemning Assad's brutal crackdown on dissent, Jumblat said the two countries want Assad to remain in power in order to preserve their interests.
"They have refused any Yemen-style settlement and the situation will become worse should the bloodshed persist," he added.
Addressing the Lebanese situation, Jumblat said: "The Taef Accord is dead, we need a 'new Taef' between the Sunnis and the Shiites, hence a new settlement."
However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
he reassured: "We don't fear a civil war and we don't foresee a civil war and there is dialogue among the Lebanese."
Jumblat's remarks come one day after ex-PM Saad Hariri
Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.
reiterated adherence to the 1989 Taef Accord during the rally held by the March 14
Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys...
forces to mark the seventh anniversary of the liquidation of ex-PM Rafik Hariri.