Druze leader says Assad has put Alawites' future at risk

Walid Jumblatt insisted that Assad cannot be part of any solution to the Syrian crisis

Druze political leader Walid Jumblatt said on Friday that Syria's Bashar Al-Assad has taken Syria and the Alawite religious community, to which he belongs, to "destruction", Jordan's Al-Sabeel newspaper has reported.

Jumblatt's remarks came after an exceptional meeting with the Judicial Council of the Druze in Lebanon to discuss the attack earlier this week on Qalb Lawzeh village in Syria's north-western Idlib province. The veteran politician tried to calm the situation, describing the attack, in which Al-Nusra Front killed at least 25 Druze members on Wednesday, as an "individual" incident. He added that there would be no political solution for Syria with Assad, who "has taken Syria to destruction."

Stressing that the future of the Syrian Arab Druze lies in reconciliation with the people of Horan, he said that, "Any other ideas are a kind of suicide." Jumblatt added that the killing of his fellow Druze did not make him forget that 200 Syrian civilians are killed every day by the Assad regime.

Insisting that Assad cannot be part of any solution to the Syrian crisis, the Druze leader reiterated his belief that a peaceful solution requires regional, Turkish, Saudi, American, Russian and Iranian input.