In a television interview, Walid Jumblatt described Hezbollah's military intervention in Syria as a grave mistake that bred resentment among Syrians seeking freedom from the Assad regime.
Walid Jumblatt, former leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, disclosed his views on Hezbollah's role in the Syrian war during the 18th episode of the television programme Witness to the Age. He characterised the party's military involvement alongside the Assad government as a historic and moral error, saying it had generated lasting hatred among a section of the Syrian population.
Jumblatt said his meetings with Hassan Nasrallah, the former Hezbollah secretary-general, were never secret and were always conducted openly. He stated that he had not discussed Hezbollah's Syria intervention with Nasrallah directly, but had publicly declared his opposition to the party's role in the conflict.
He described Hezbollah's entry into the Syrian war as occurring after the Syrian army suffered heavy losses and attrition. Jumblatt said the party was in some phases more trained than other actors before Iranian forces and armed groups intervened, followed eventually by Russia. He claimed the party participated in operations launched by the Assad regime against rebels and in creating what he termed human vacancies in some border areas, including al-Qusayr.
Jumblatt asserted that Hezbollah's stated justification for intervention, the fight against takfiri extremists, amounted to a pretext. He argued instead that the party had fought a people seeking freedom after decades under Assad rule. Hezbollah itself suffered significant losses in Syria, he acknowledged, but had nevertheless been party to the government's operations.
On the roles of Iran and Russia, Jumblatt said that Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander, had travelled to Moscow to request Russian intervention in Syria. Jumblatt characterised this as evidence that Iran had enlisted Russian support for the Assad regime rather than the reverse.
Despite his strong criticism of events in that period, Jumblatt stressed the necessity of moving past the consequences of Syria's past. He said that despite the horrors of mass graves, missing persons and detention facilities, there must be a path to reconciliation and escape from the residue of history, grounded in the need to think of the future and live on shared land.
On the assassination of Brigadier Wissam al-Hasan, a security official, Jumblatt said al-Hasan had fallen into a trap after his return to Lebanon. He suggested that security men sometimes believe they enjoy greater immunity than others because of the security apparatus and procedures surrounding them, a false sense of protection that can prove fatal.
In personal remarks during his testimony, Jumblatt spoke of his mother, Mai Arslan. He said she had embraced and protected the Progressive Socialist Party and protected him as well, warning him of certain dangers. He described her as a strong personality whom no one dared to disobey, and characterised her as a support to himself and to those around him.
Jumblatt's account represents a rare public reflection by a senior Lebanese political figure on Hezbollah's intervention in Syria and its consequences. The conflict drew multiple foreign powers into the Syrian arena and left deep fractures in Lebanese politics and society. His call for reconciliation and a move beyond past grievances stands in tension with the blame he assigns to the party for its role in the war, and underscores the difficulty of consensus in Lebanon over Syria policy.
