Jumblatt, Sharia and the wounds of the two lions

From distant Moscow, he follows the conditions of Damascus, whose keys he held, and the fates of the Syrians. He has every right to rub his eyes. The scene is hard to believe and bear. He knows this place line by line. It is the chair his father sat on fifty-four years ago. The same chair he sat on twenty-four years ago. The chair whose occupant promised to remain forever Assad in identity and passion. But history says that the chair tires of its occupant if he overdoes it with thorny bets and its apparatuses overdo it with feasts of cruelty. How cruel it is to lose the palace and the seals. And for people to pounce on the pictures and statues! Neither the Tsar rushed to repel fate, nor did the Guide. No ally saved him, nor did he save himself. How cruel the scene is for the distant viewer! Syria without Assad. Without Iran. And without Hezbollah. Time has turned a full circle.

He knows the place line by line. This is Hafez al-Assad’s chair. And after him, Bashar al-Assad’s chair. Sitting on it is the one they describe today as “the strong man.” A man who took off the cloak of “Abu Muhammad al-Julani” and put on the suit of Ahmad al-Sharaa and began distributing guarantees and reassurances. The name of the visitor doubles the severity of the scene. He is Walid Jumblatt. Kamal Jumblatt’s son. And Rafik Hariri’s companion. He is the one who carried the two coffins and the two lions’ wounds. And when al-Sharaa shook hands with the visiting Jumblatt, the sun of an entire era set on the Beirut-Damascus road.

For half a century, presidencies and leaderships were made on the Beirut-Damascus road, and the Damascene factory produced ministers, deputies and generals. The prestige of the presidential palace, the Serail and the parliament in Lebanon was eroded, and the Syrian officer residing in Anjar took control of the lost republic and the relations between the components. Walid Jumblatt's story is different. The family's leadership is four centuries old and it is difficult for it not to be stubborn.

Kamal Jumblatt did not accept Hafez al-Assad’s right to control Lebanon’s destiny, subjugate it, and reshape its balances. His presence became an obstacle to Assad Sr. exercising the mandate he had obtained regionally and internationally to control the small, troublesome country. Jumblatt told Mohsen Ibrahim: “I know my destiny and I will not avoid it. I do not want history to write that I signed Lebanon’s entry into the big prison.” The bullets were not long in coming. In March 1977, bullets pierced Kamal Jumblatt’s body in his mountain stronghold, and fate summoned his son Walid to wear the mantle of leadership.

The young man, who loved life and its hustle and bustle, controlled his anger and the feelings of revenge among his supporters. About forty days after the assassination, he entered Assad’s office, who was struck by the resemblance between the son and his father. Walid refused to involve his sect in a confrontation beyond its capacity. Saving its historical existence was an absolute priority for him. He hid his wound. He pretended to forget, but he did not. His relationship with Assad the father reached the point of an alliance in the “Mountain War” in 1983, and Assad later tolerated Jumblatt’s moods whenever he had the desire to show distinction, protest, or disagree.

Walid Jumblatt’s relationship with Bashar al-Assad was based on suspicion and caution, and was overshadowed by Rafik Hariri’s shadow. Walid did not accept Bashar’s right to run Lebanon as his father did with Assad the father. Rafik Hariri did not accept that either. Hariri would later say: “I tried to be a friend of Bashar’s, but he refused. Walid tried too, and the result was the same. Bashar believed the informers and the writers of the reports from the beginning.”

The assassination of Hariri in 2005 was a dangerous turning point in Jumblatt’s relationship with Assad’s Damascus. He advanced and went far. From Martyrs’ Square in Beirut, he shook Assad’s image and attacked him with the harshest expressions and descriptions.

Walid plays with the storms. He storms in, he crouches, he lurks. He exaggerates, he apologizes, he corrects. He calms down, he watches the winds, then he resumes shooting. His veins were boiling when his mother told him of a Chinese proverb that calls on the wounded to “sit on the riverbank and wait for the corpse of his enemy.” Walid sat and waited a long time. He took the Beirut-Damascus road again after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah succeeded in breaking the will of Assad’s opponents for a few years.

The ointments of frankness and reconciliation were not enough to change what was in people’s hearts. After the outbreak of the Syrian revolution, Walid entered Assad’s office and advised him to prosecute the killers of the boy Hamza al-Khatib. Assad’s response doubled his despair. His estrangement from the Assad regime increased when he heard a very harsh statement from the former Chief of Staff of the Syrian Army, Hikmat al-Shihabi. Al-Shihabi said about Bashar: “This boy will take Syria to civil war and partition.”

Despite Russia and Iran's success in saving the Assad regime, Jumblatt decided to "stand on the right side of history" and turn the page on appointments with Assad, no matter the cost.

Assad was absent, so Jumblatt returned to the Beirut-Damascus road. He came at the head of a delegation of representatives, party members, and clerics. Walid carried his wishes to see a unified and stable Syria that respects diversity and accommodates all its components, including the Kurds, under the law. The composition of the delegation reflects Jumblatt’s constant interest in consolidating the presence of the Druze component in the Arab and Islamic depth, especially after Netanyahu’s recent moves. Jumblatt hopes that normal relations will be established between Lebanon and the new Syria between two neighbors, and that there will be serious cooperation in the files of displaced and missing Lebanese, border demarcation, and the clarification of the Shebaa Farms issue.

Neighbors woke up to a new Syria. Iraq was busy trying to figure out the dimensions of what had happened and the possible consequences. Jordan was also busy. Questions escalated in Lebanon, especially among those concerned with the interruption of the “Soleimani Road” between Tehran and Beirut. Israel acted with tremendous aggression. Only the Turkish player was not surprised because it participated in creating the new scene. The West began to explore the intentions of the man sitting in Assad’s chair. Can Shara dispel the concerns and fears at home and abroad? Only the coming months will have the answers.

The law shook hands with the coffin bearer and the wounds of the two lions. An entire era waved and departed into history.

*Quoted from Asharq Al-Awsat