Jumblat Travels to Saudi Arabia for 1st Time in Over 2 Years

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat and MP Nehme Tohme on Friday left for Saudi Arabia aboard a private plane, the National News Agency reported.

The Druze leader is scheduled to meet with various high-ranking officials, revealed al-Joumhouria newspaper on Friday.

Sources monitoring the situation told the daily that the trip “would not have been possible had a breakthrough not been expected to be achieved during the visit.”

They did not elaborate on the nature of the breakthrough, but noted that the trip will take place after the MP met with former Premier Saad Hariri in France on January 29 and after Premier Najib Miqati had traveled to Saudi Arabia recently where he met with a number of officials on the sidelines of the Arab Economic and Social Development Summit.

Ties between the Druze leader and Saudi Arabia deteriorated after Hariri's government was toppled by Hizbullah and its allies in 2011.

Jumblat, who is a centrist, played a major role in deciding the fate of the majority alliance that makes up the current Hizbullah-led cabinet.

The March 8 majority led by Hizbullah, backed by some of Jumblat’s 12-member National Struggle Front parliamentary bloc, brought Prime Minister Najib Miqati to the premiership after Hariri’s national unity cabinet was toppled.