Source: al-akhbar, 12-6-2009

"I fiercely attacked Syrian President Bashar Assad. No one has reached the level I had reached," especially as the attacks were also on a personal level, said Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt in an interview with Al-Akhbar newspaper on Friday.

"Some wounds cannot be healed. I want to move past these problems, because we cannot but foster good relations with Syria, and they should be based on the Taif Accord," Jumblatt told the daily.

Jumblatt's statement comes in line with his recent shift in rhetoric in which he has called for initiating dialogue with the opposition parties as well as with Syria, and for fostering a calm atmosphere in the country. Jumblatt had previously been a staunch critic of Damascus, accusing the Syrian regime of the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri in 2005, something that caused a popular uprising in Lebanon to push occupying Syrian troops out of the country after 29 years.

He also suggested increasing President Michel Suleiman's share of ministers in the new cabinet instead of discussing the obstructing-third vote, which was granted to the opposition during the Doha Conference in May 2008.

"The president should be more active at least for the moment, because we cannot amend the constitution to increase his powers," he said.

The PSP leader concluded that the only guarantee for Hizbullah to maintain its arsenal is dialogue, in the hopes of "one day" reaching a point where the party's weapons could be part of the state's military institution.