Jumblat: Islamic State should spur Lebanon’s Christians to act

Druze leader says Christians must unite to agree on a president so that the country can better deal with threat from Islamist militants.

Young Yazidi refugees collect water at a refugee camp in Hasaka province in north eastern Syria. They were forced to flee Iraq along with Christians after Islamic State militants captured their towns. Ahmad Al Rubaye / AFP / August 14, 2014Show less

BEIRUT // With minorities facing death and persecution at the hands of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Lebanon’s Christians must lay aside their rivalries and agree on who should fill the vacant presidency, a leading Druze politician said.

Walid Jumblatt, the most influential figure in Lebanon’s Druze community, says he is as alarmed as anyone by the rise of the radical Islamist group guided by a puritanical vision of Islam that is a major threat to religious minorities including his own. Christians and Yazidis have fled its advance in Iraq.

Mr Jumblatt said Christian leaders in Lebanon, itself the target of a deadly incursion by Islamic State fighters from Syria this month, needed to recognise the danger of what is going on the region and agree on a new head of state.

Lebanon’s presidency, the only one reserved for a Christian in the Arab world, has been vacant since May, when Michel Suleiman’s term ended. Parliament has repeatedly failed to elect his successor in the absence of a political agreement.

Many observers believe that such an accord must be brokered by rival regional states that wield critical influence over Lebanon’s competing alliances, particularly Saudi Arabia and Iran.

But Mr Jumblatt said the problem was “local”.

“It’s a Christian mistake. They are not seeing what is (going on) in the surroundings,” he said. “It’s up to them to know that by keeping this division they are making the Christian presence in Lebanon weaker and weaker.

“They are weakening themselves and weakening Lebanon.”

Once the dominant force in Lebanon, the Maronites stand divided between rival alliances that define the country’s crises-ridden politics: the March 8 coalition including the Iranian-backed Hizbollah, and the Saudi-backed March 14 alliance led by Sunni politician Saad Hariri.

With Maronite leaders including civil war foes Michel Aoun and Samir Geagea both eyeing the presidency, it will only likely be filled by a deal on a candidate acceptable to all.

The army chief Gen Jean Kahwaji, whose forces battled Islamic State militants for five days in Arsal this month, is seen as one potential candidate. Both Mr Suleiman and his predecessor, Emile Lahoud, were former army commanders.

Besides the presidency, parliamentary elections have also fallen victim to political deadlock. Elections that were due to take place last year were postponed until later this year.

Mr Jumblatt linked his support for another extension of the existing parliament’s term to the election of a president: “I will just go for a technical prolongation of some months, maybe six months, conditioned on the election of a president.”

The Druze are one of Lebanon’s smaller sects but punch above their weight in politics. Mr Jumblatt has maximised his influence by switching allegiances several times in recent years.

Despite their differences, Lebanese leaders have managed to unite in the face of the threat posed by the Islamic State.

Together with other radical groups, its fighters seized Arsal on August 2, in the most serious spillover to date of Syria’s three-year-long civil war into Lebanon.

Dozens of people, including 19 soldiers, were killed in the ensuing battle. The militants withdrew on August 5, taking with them 19 captured soldiers and 17 policemen.

“The Islamic State is a threat to both the moderate Islam headed by Mr Saad Hariri and of course for Hizbollah,” said Mr Jumblatt. “There is a convergence, an anxiety of a common enemy ... which is good.”

Praising the army, he said: “Beyond our stupid political disputes, we still have institutions that can resist.”

The Arsal crisis brought Mr Hariri back to Lebanon after three years of self-imposed exile. He brought with him US$1 billion (Dh3.67bn) in Saudi aid to help the security forces fight extremism.

A religious minority spread across the region, the Druze, a faith rooted in Islam but influenced by ancient Greek and Indian philosophy, have survived previous waves of persecution throughout history.

The rise of the Islamic State appears to have pushed Mr Jumblatt closer to Hizbollah, whose highly trained guerrillas are fighting the Sunni Islamist-dominated insurgency in Syria alongside president Bashar Al Assad’s forces.

While maintaining his fierce opposition to Mr Al Assad, Mr Jumblatt has eased off in his criticism of Hizbollah’s role in Syria.

Hizbollah’s political foes, including Mr Hariri, still say its role in Syria has provoked Sunni attacks in Lebanon.

Mr Jumblatt said there was no point in blaming Hizbollah for fighting in Syria, saying that the group was implementing Iranian policy.

“Continuing to blame Hizbollah will lead to nowhere. Now we have to somewhere find a kind of coordination - a political effort, a political joint venture.

“It’s up to us now.”

* Reuters