Hezbullah Power and Saudi Money: 'Drill Baby, Drill' in Lebanon
Four years ago, Waleed Jumblat joined the March 14 movement rightly dubbed by many the pro-West, pro-Saudi camp in Lebanese politics. He took his Progressive Socialist Party and most of the Druze community, both inherited from his father Kamal, into the conservative Hariri-Saniora camp. He allied with people who would have been unacceptable to his assassinated father, a giant of Lebanese politics and a pillar of the Lebanese left.
He also provoked some fighting in Beirut some time ago, with Hezbullah showing its military strength.
Now, Mr. Jumblat has had second thoughts. He announced that he was not a part of the March 14 anymore. And he talked some rhetoric he had not stated for some years. That was just after they won a parliamentary majority and were trying to form a government headed by Saad Hariri.
Mr Jumblat basically seemed to be going back to the socialist roots of his father’s movement. He said that his party had moved too far to the right, and that it needs to go back to the left.
Mr. Hariri, frustrated in forming a cabinet, behaved even odder. He decided to take a vacation in France. Very Lebanese but not exactly a leader-ly behavior.
Mr Jumblat was blasted by the Saudi media and its surrogates in Lebanon as they grasped at public explanations. Some claimed they already knew he was unreliable and would bolt. In fact he had complained in the past that the March 14 movement had used sectarian (anti-Shi’a) tactics against the opposition. He was basically threatening to undo the parliamentary majority’s political momentum, which was already waning after weeks of political bargaining.
Out flew Mr. Hariri, and in flew the Saudi minister in charge of Lebanese affairs, the former ambassador to Beirut. He had a long meeting with Jumblat. Next day Jumblat unconvincingly announced that he was not really completely breaking with the March 14 after all. He also said that his party needed new slogans. Slogans? How about “Drill baby, drill. Drill here, drill now”?
The Saudi media scrambled to make a 180-degree turn and started to praise him again, for now.
Q: What could the Saudi minister (former ambassador) tell Jumblat to make him revise his position? Whatever it was, we will know it on the ground, or also more likely from the air within the coming few months.
Stay tuned: this saga is not over.You never know in Lebanon: people switch alliances, they leave the country, they get assassinated.....
Cheers
mhg
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