Jumblat: Hariri Took a Different Route, Berri My Only Ally

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat said the term of President Michel Aoun has engaged itself in tedious unfulfilled pledges, pointing out that Speaker Nabih Berri will always be his ally, al-Akhbar daily reported on Tuesday.

“The mandate (of Aoun) has engaged itself into the whirlpool of the electoral law and was in a hurry to complete the qualifying law format,” Jumblat told the daily in an interview.

“It has also engaged itself in a series of projects, namely electricity projects, which is a financial and monetary disaster if adopted,” he added, pointing to an electricity tender on Monday to lease power vessels.

“We (the State) have pledged to spend 2 billion dollars to lease two (power-generating) Turkish ships from the same company that came with the other vessels, meanwhile we are able to build a power factory with an equivalent amount of 1.5 billion dollars, equal to the annual deficit of electricity, that produces a capacity of 2,000 megawatts,” stressed the MP.

Pointing out that he obtained the figures from a big contractor in a large Lebanese company in Saudi Arabia, Jumbalt said: “He told me that he delivered a factory with these specifications and at this cost. Meanwhile we (Lebanon) tend to rent goods for suspicious reasons, like the previous ships, adding to that fact that they produce a lot of pollution.”

On his relation with his once long-time ally Hariri, Jumblat remarked: “It seems he took a special path we are not used to. Therefore I chose to step back and only contact when it is necessary. But the road he chose in politics is not his usual way.”

The PSP leader however hailed his ties with Speaker Nabih Berri, he said: “Berri is my only ally. I will repeat this even if some hate to hear it. He is still my ally and my only ally.”

Jumblat pointed out saying that political parties refuse to acknowledge each other when drafting an electoral law that is supposed to represent well all political parties in the country, “we only want a solution for this impasse,” he said.