BEIRUT: Not every refugee is a terrorist, MP Walid Jumblatt said Sunday, condemning any form of unwarranted aggression against Syrian refugees.
“Some Lebanese and Syrians have drifted in to terrorism, and we have to distinguish between a terrorist and a refugee," the head of the Progressive Socialist Party said during a tour of the predominantly Druze village of Ain Ata, pointing out that a suicide bombing that targeted the Iranian Embassy earlier this year had been carried out by a Lebanese.
“If we suspect that someone has a link to terrorism, we should rely on the state to deal with it.”
The PSP has worked to discourage the Druze community from taking security into their own hands over the last several weeks as Lebanon experiences a series of attacks by militants from Syria. Jumblatt has visited several Druze villages in a tour over the last few days, delivering variations of these warnings.
Addressing the crowd that gathered to hear him Ain Ata, Jumblatt quoted the king of Saudi Arabia as saying that he considered the Druze community in Lebanon as "one of his own," warning that by attacking Syrian refugees, the perpetrators would also be “harming the interests of the Druze in the Gulf.”
“Do you want us to make the king mad?” he asked.
Separately, Jumblatt condemned threats by the Nusra Front to continue killing hostages.
“We will not negotiate over our hostages this way,” the PSP chief said.
The Nusra Front executed a soldier late Friday night, in a move that marks the first killing of a captive being held by the group after over it and ISIS captured more than 30 soldiers and policemen during an attack on the northeastern town of Arsal last month. ISIS has killed two of the captives it is holding.
Jumblatt called on the judiciary to speed up the “fair trials” of Islamists held in Roumieh Prison, whose release is a key demand of the militants.
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