Junblat rejects punishing all Syrians, for acts of few

The Lebanese Druze leader and parliamentarian Walid Junblat rejected likely sanctions against Syria, over the involvement of some officials in the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, to cover the entire Syrian people, and considered that the common history between the Lebanese and Syrian people is stronger than "the handful of evils."

He said in a press conference in his palace in al-Mukhtara in Beirut, commenting on the report of the chairman of the UN investigation committee Detleve Mehlis "let the sanctions be confined to the suspects, or those responsible for the assassination."

Junblat recommended the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to collaborate with the UN investigation committee, and indicated the role of President al-Assad in an interview he had one week earlier with CNN to that "Any Syrian that is proved to be involved in the assassination of Hariri will be considered as a 'traitor', and will be strongly punished."

Junblat did not oppose having the case brought before an international court "if necessary," but conditioned that to be under the auspices of the UN, and to be legally credible and far from any political implications.

On the other hand, Junblat insisted to "make a distinction between the UN resolution 1595, according to which the UN committee to the assassination of Hariri is governed, and UN resolution 1559, according to which Syria withdrew from Lebanon in April ," and so far its article on dismantling the Shiite Hizbullah party and the Palestinian militias was not implemented.

He said that "the priority is for resolution 1595, while resolution 1559, what is left of it, is an internal responsibility that can be solved by internal dialogue, according to the requirements of the national security, reconciliation and national unity."

Junblat's statements on the UN investigation report is in line with the welcome it received from the Lebanese government, which it said was highly professional and meets the confidence of the Lebanese and is factual.