Says Damascus flooding country with nationals, reports of workers fleeing 'unfounded'
By Aaron Klein
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt (radiofarda.com)
Widespread media reports of Syria warning its nationals to flee Lebanon ahead of a major outbreak of violence and civil war there are "unfounded," contended Lebanon's Druze Leader Walid Jumblatt in an interview today with WND.
Jumblatt insisted instead of evacuating its citizens, Syria has been sending "thousands of so-called workers and tourists per day," possibly ahead of an attempt to destabilize the country.
"There is no evacuation of Syrian workers. Instead, thousands are coming a day, including so-called tourists. I am worried, because our working sector is paralyzed, our economy is down, we have no tourism and yet you have this strange influx of many Syrians and also many Iraqis into Lebanon," said Jumblatt."
"I am not dismissing that Syria will start major trouble for us to delay the tribunal," said Jumblatt, referring to a special tribunal set up by the U.N. Security Council to try any indicted suspects in the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in a car bombing in 2005.
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Syria was widely blamed for the Hariri assassination
Also, the U.N. is set later this week to debate deploying international monitors or forces to the Syria-Lebanese to stem the reported flow of large quantities of weapons to Hezbollah. A deployment along its borders is strongly contested by Syria.
Jumblatt is head of the Progressive Socialist Party and is widely considered one of Lebanon's most prominent anti-Syrian politicians.
His concern for a civil war in Lebanon comes after weeks of intermittent fighting that continued yesterday with the purportedly al-Qaida-connected group Fatah al-Islam in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian camp, near the northern town of Tripoli. The clashes, which resulted in mass casualties, were described as the worst internal fighting since the Lebanese civil war, 17 yeas ago.
Jumblatt told WND Fatah al-Islam is aided by Syria.
"Fatah al Islam has a well known Syrian affiliation. Their camp not far from the Syrian border. While Lebanon was under Syrian control, the Syrians were able to present Fatah al Islam with a military infrastructure. Currently, I have no doubt of weapons smuggling from Syria (to the camp)," he said.
Jumblatt's comments follow Arab and Iranian media reports Syria has warned its citizens to leave Lebanon by July 15 ahead of an expected "eruption" in Lebanon.
The media reports were translated and made available by the Middle East Media Research Institute Arabic news translation organization in a special dispatch Sunday.
"In the past few days, Arab and Iranian media reports have pointed to the possibility that Lebanon's current political crisis may become a violent conflict after July 15, 2007," the MEMRI dispatch said.
July 15 comes one day before the special U.N. meeting to discuss stationing international monitors on the Syria-Lebanon border.
MEMRI said in its report: "On July 5, 2007, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported that Syrian authorities had instructed all Syrian citizens residing in Lebanon to return to their country by July 15, 2007. The next day, the Israeli Arab daily Al-Sinara similarly reported, on the authority of a Lebanese source close to Damascus, that Syria was planning to remove its citizens from Lebanon. Also on July 5, the Lebanese daily Al-Liwa reported rumors that Syrian workers were leaving Lebanon at the request of the Syrian authorities. In addition, the Syrian government daily Al-Thawra reported that Syrian universities would accept Syrian students who were leaving Lebanon due to the instability there,"
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