Jumblatt’s son, Taymour named new PSP chief

Sole contender Taymour Jumblatt, 41, to succeed father Walid Jumblatt, who headed Progressive Socialist Party since his father Kamal Jumblatt was assassinated 45 years ago

AïN ZHALTA, Chouf, Lebanon — Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist party ( PSP) on Sunday chose Taymour Jumblatt, 41, to succeed his father

Almost 2,000 supporters gathered in Ain Zhalta, in the Druze heartland of the Chouf mountains, where members of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) named the lawmaker as their new leader, after his father headed the party for 45 years.

He takes up the mantle at a time when Lebanon has been reeling from three years of grueling economic crisis, widely blamed on the governing elite of which the Jumblatt dynasty is a core component.

“Taymour Jumblatt won the presidency of the Progressive Socialist Party, for which he was the sole contender,” the PSP said in a statement.

His father Walid Jumblatt, 73, had already passed the leadership of his small but influential Druze community to his son in 2017.

The PSP was founded by Taymour’s grandfather Kamal Jumblatt who was assassinated by Syrian agents on orders by Hafez al Assad , father of current president Bashar al Assad . On 16 March 1977, Jumblatt was gunned down in his car near the village of Baakline in the Chouf mountains by unidentified gunmen. His bodyguard and driver also died in the attack. Former president Hafez al Assad was accused of being behind the assassination

Born in 1982 during the civil war, Taymour studied at the American University of Beirut, where he met his wife Diana Zeaiter and at the Sorbonne in France.