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Hariri Shows Understanding towards Aoun, Jumblatt Meeting

The meeting held by Lebanese President Michel Aoun and the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Jumblatt, Asharq Al-Awsat
The meeting held by Lebanese President Michel Aoun and the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Jumblatt, Asharq Al-Awsat
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Hariri Shows Understanding towards Aoun, Jumblatt Meeting

The meeting held by Lebanese President Michel Aoun and the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Jumblatt, Asharq Al-Awsat
The meeting held by Lebanese President Michel Aoun and the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Jumblatt, Asharq Al-Awsat

Lebanon’s former prime minister and leader of the Future Movement Saad Hariri showed understanding towards the meeting held by Lebanese President Michel Aoun and the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Jumblatt, a political source told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Hariri, according to the source speaking under the conditions of anonymity, informed Lebanese lawmaker Wael Abou Faour that the main reason behind the meeting was to ease tensions in Mount Lebanon and prevent a lurking clash between Christian and Druze communities.

Even though relations between the PSP and the Future Movement remain unstable, Hariri and Jumblatt insist on coordinating efforts.

The political source said that it is wrong to conclude from the participation of Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea in the national meeting sponsored by Aoun and attended by PSP leader Jumblatt that Geagea and Jumblatt represent a united front alongside Hariri.

Jumblatt and Geagea’s move, according to the source, will not change the current political standing and that the government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab is not going anywhere so long Aoun’s presidential mandate is still running.

As for Aoun and Jumblatt’s meeting, sources said that MP Farid Boustani, a member of Aoun’s parliamentary bloc, sought to mediate between the two sides, “in order to prevent a further political escalation” between Christians and Druze in the region.

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Syria’s Minorities Demand Decentralized State, Constitution That Guarantees Pluralism

SDF forces in Hasakeh, Syria. (Asharq Al-Awsat file)
SDF forces in Hasakeh, Syria. (Asharq Al-Awsat file)
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Syria’s Minorities Demand Decentralized State, Constitution That Guarantees Pluralism

SDF forces in Hasakeh, Syria. (Asharq Al-Awsat file)
SDF forces in Hasakeh, Syria. (Asharq Al-Awsat file)

Hundreds of representatives of Syria’s various ethnic and religious groups called Friday for the formation of a decentralized state and the drafting of a new constitution that guarantees religious, cultural and ethnic pluralism.

The declaration came at the conclusion of a one-day conference where some 400 representatives of Syria's ethnic and religious minorities gathered in an attempt to assert the rights of their communities in the country’s evolving political framework following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad last December.

The transition is to include elections scheduled for September and the eventual drafting of a constitution — a process that could take years. The post-Assad transition has so far been marred by violence against minorities, raising fears about the future.

Ghazal Ghazal, the spiritual leader of Syria’s Alawite minority, to whom Assad belongs, called for setting up a decentralized or federal system in Syria that protects religious and cultural rights of all components of the Syrian people.

The conference was held in Hasakeh, a northeastern Syrian city under the control of the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

Elham Ahmad, a senior official with the autonomous administration in northeast Syria, said she hopes to see the emergence of a Syria built on cultural and ethnic pluralism.

“This conference sends a message of civil peace and national reconciliation,” she said.

Hakemat Habib, one of the conference organizers, said that central governments and “tyrannical regimes” over the past decades have failed and that a democratic and decentralized state agreed upon by all Syrians is the only way to move forward. “Syrian identity includes all Syrians,” he said.

Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, whose fighters clashed with pro-government gunmen last month, told the conference in a televised speech that “pluralism is not a threat but a treasure that strengthens unity.”

The interim government in Damascus did not comment on the conference.