Walid Jumblatt

Early life and education

He was born in August 1949 to the Jumblatt family as the son of PSP's founder Kamal Jumblatt. He is the maternal grandson of Prince Shakib Arslan. Walid Jumblatt graduated from the American University of Beirut with a bachelor's degree in political science and public administration in 1982.

Career

Upon graduation, Jumblatt worked as a reporter for An Nahar in Beirut. The BBC describes Jumblatt as "leader of Lebanon's most powerful Druze clan and heir to a leftist political dynasty based around the Progressive Socialist Party". Assem Qanso of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party of Lebanon accused Jumblatt of abandoning his father's beliefs. In July 1983, after Amine Gemayel became president, Suleiman Frangieh, Rashid Karami and Walid Jumblatt formed a Syrian-backed National Salvation Front to challenge Gemayel's rule and the pact between Lebanon and Israel that was financially supported by the US. Jumblatt served as minister of public works, transport and tourism in the National Unity cabinet led by then prime minister Rashid Karami, which was formed in May 1984. His main ally during the war was Amal Movement's leader, Nabih Berri.

He was a supporter of Syria, but following the death of Syrian President Hafez Assad in 2000, he campaigned for Damascus to relinquish control. Jumblatt's close links with the Syrian old guard alienated after the presidency of Bashar al-Assad. This pitted him against then president Émile Lahoud and the Lebanese Shiite party Hezbollah of which he said: "Their fighters have done a good job defying and defeating the Israeli army, OK, but the question we ask is where their allegiance goes: to a Lebanese strong central authority or somewhere else?" In the 2009 general elections, Jumblatt won a seat from Shouf as part of the 14 March Alliance list. Following issues with Hezbollah's community, his son Taymour Jumblatt fled to France with his family after multiple death threats which prevented him from joining the local political scene.

With the onset of the Syrian Civil War, Jumblatt and the PSP moved towards an anti-Assad stance. Jumblatt has been crucial in negotiations regarding the Syrian Druze during the Syrian Civil War, and has stated about al-Nusra Front “I cannot classify, like Western countries, Nusra as terrorist because most of Nusra are Syrians. The terrorist regime of Bashar obliged the Syrians to join Nusra”. After al-Nusra Front allegedly killed 20 Druze villagers in Qalb Loze on 10 June 2015, Jumblatt responded that "Any inciting rhetoric will not be beneficial, and you should remember that Bashar Assad’s policies pushed Syria into this chaos".

Walid Jumblatt believe that the order to kill his father came from Hafez al-Assad. He said he would rather "commit a political suicide" than reconcile with his son Bashar al-Assad.

In 2014, Walid Jumblatt declared himself in favor of the legalisation of cannabis in Lebanon. In 2015, he admitted hiding the Swedish spy Stig Bergling during the early 1990s in a remote place in Lebanon upon the request of Russian authorities.

In May 2017, the trial of four men accused of conspiring the assassination of Walid Jumblatt began.

Personal life

Jumblatt was twenty when he married his first wife, who was an Iranian actress and older than him. His father did not endorse the marriage. In 2017, his son Taymour W. Jumblatt replaced him to run for parliamentary elections.

In popular culture and arts

Like many political leaders, Walid Jumblatt has been the subject of photography since the late 1970s. The photographer Ziad Antar made a portrait of him using an old expired film, which produced a ghosty effect. The image supposedly evokes the danger of a Lebanese Druze leader faces after he had criticized Hezbollah and the Syrian government.