Jumblatt says negotiations were weak and armistice should have been upheld

Walid Jumblatt said Lebanon should have started from the foundations before moving to small points and experimental areas in the negotiating track with Israel, noting that the Armistice Agreement that governed Lebanese-Israeli relations since 1949 was included in the Taif Agreement and international resolutions. Speaking at the signing ceremony for his memoir, "A Destiny in This East," he said he supported negotiations, directly or through a mediator, but they entered talks from a weak position and should have adhered to the agreements, foremost among them the armistice. He said he was not afraid of partition but of the southern Israeli inclination, meaning normalization, insisting that a barrier against it remain in Lebanon, and warning that normalization could lead someone to say there is no longer an enemy, requiring a change in the army’s doctrine.