In a far-ranging interview with New TV on Sunday, the head of the Democratic Gathering, MP Walid Jumblat, asked the leader of Hizbullah to salute Beirut, not to apologize to it. He called upon Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah "to salute Beirut, which is neither for March 8 nor for March 14, but is rather Beirut of the siege," which expelled Israel, "Beirut of the Palestinian resistance, and Beirut of the joint Lebanese-Palestinian struggle, the Beirut of diversity."| "I do not ask him to apologize, but rather to salute Beirut," the Druze leader said. |
While Jumblat denied that his reception of released Lebanese prisoner Samir Qantar in Abey indicated that he had entered into an alliance with Hizbullah, he said one cannot be Lebanese "without Arabism and without Palestine."