Jumblat Counsels Lahoud to Find 'Safe Spot to Crawl into,' Predicting Early

Jumblat Counsels Lahoud to Find 'Safe Spot to Crawl into,' Predicting Early
DownfallNaharnet.com August 31, 2005
Walid Jumblat has contended that the arrest of President Lahoud's former commanders of the nation's main security services would accelerate his downfall, doubting that the 11th post-independence president of Lebanon would be able to find a safe spot to crawl into.
"The countdown for catching Martyr Rafik Hariri's assassins has begun," Jumblat said in Paris upon learning of the detention of Jamil Sayyed, Ali Hajj and Raymond Azar in Beirut by the U.N. commission investigating Hariri's murder.
"The truth is going to be attained and Hariri's blood will not go to waste," said the Druze leader, who flew secretly to Paris with his cabinet ministers Ghazi Aridi and Nihmeh Tohmeh on Monday as lawmaker Gebran Tueni revealed from the French capital the existence of a list of politicians and journalists marked for assassination in Lebanon.
"Big heads will roll in Lebanon and other countries as a result of the U.N. probe," Jumblat went on. "If I am in Lahoud's place, I would seek a safe spot to crawl into. But I don't know if there is a safe place for Mr. Lahoud nowadays."