Jumblatt: I No Longer Know How to Speak With the “Party”

Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt expressed pessimism about the future of the region amid the open war with Iran, the Israeli escalation in Gaza and southern Lebanon, and the diminishing prospects for internal dialogue in Lebanon.

In an interview with the French newspaper Libération, he said he was no longer able to communicate with Hezbollah as he had in the past during the tenure of the party’s former secretary-general, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, arguing that the current leadership “has come fully under Iranian influence after Nasrallah was assassinated by Israel in 2024.”

He added: “I can no longer, and I do not know how to speak with the party,” noting that he had previously been able to debate and communicate with Nasrallah, “but there is no longer anyone to talk to.”

Jumblatt also said that “Hezbollah’s opponents have also become completely hardline,” saying that Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea behaves “as if he were Moses,” and adding that “everyone is trapped in a spiral of violence and trading insults, while the voice of reason has disappeared.”

He warned of the growing “separatist and partitionist influence in the region,” arguing that “the Israeli project to create sectarian, religious, and tribal entities has returned to the forefront with the aim of dismantling the entire region.”

He denounced “Israel’s complete impunity,” saying it has “a green light to destroy Gaza and southern Lebanon and colonize what remains of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank.”

He added that “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to push forward the Zionist project that has extended for more than a century.”

On the regional front, Jumblatt predicted the war against Iran would continue, saying that “many stand to benefit from it, from arms and oil companies to technology and artificial intelligence firms,” adding: “The stock market is rising, and so is gold,” before concluding that he is “completely pessimistic.”