Jumblatt: Israel playing a dubious game and Assad should be exiled to Siberia

“I don’t want at any price the so-called help of the Israelis who are playing a very dubious and suspicious role,” Lebanon’s Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, declared in an interview on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” broadcast on New York’s AM 970 The Answer and Philadelphia’s NewsTalk 990 AM or online.

He rejected the idea that Israel could be a source of help for the Druze community in neighboring Syria which has come under threat recently by the advance of the Islamic State and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.

His comments came a week after Israeli Druze attacked an IDF ambulance carrying wounded Syrians for treatment in Israel, killing one person and wounding another. The attackers believed that the wounded Syrians were members of the Nusra Front, which are threatening the Druze community in the village of Hader, just over the border in the Syrian Golan Heights.

Israel has rejected the claims that it is aiding the Nusra Front, but Jumblatt suggested that he believes the accusations are true.

“The Israelis are welcoming wounded fighters and wounded people from the area of Quneitra. Some Arab brothers. But two days ago, an ambulance carrying wounded people, I don’t know why it was directed inside a Druze village inside Israel. And the Druze attacked this ambulance and killed one of the wounded, which is a horrible act. But this guy was (taken) not far away from the city of Hader in Syria, not far away from Mount Hermon, which would create more animosity between the Druze and the Sunnis. So this is why I say the Israeli play is very dubious and suspicious.”

He urged the Druze community in Hader to reconcile with the Syrian insurgents threatening their village. “It’s better to open reconciliation with the rebels because it’s an isolated village.”

Khader has been surrounded by rebels from the Al-Nusra Front, prompting fears of a possible massacre there.

Two weeks ago, human rights groups reported at least 27 Druze villagers were shot dead in a massacre carried out by extremist Islamist elements of the al-Nusra Front rebel force in another Druze town located in central Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that elderly Druze and at least one child were among the civilians killed in Qalb Lawzah in Idlib province.

Exile Assad to Siberia

“The way Assad has been behaving for the past four years has led Syria to civil war and the possibility of partitioning, which means endless bloodshed,” added Jumblatt.

“Maybe the only way to save Syria from this gloomy scenario is to tell his friends, meaning the Russians, meaning the Iranians, to get him somewhere, either to Siberia or to a desert,” he said. “There is a desert not too far away from Tehran. It may save Syria from this terrible scenario.”