Jumblat blames Christian leaders over presidential deadlock, says "they are weakening Lebanon"

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat called on Lebanon's Christians to lay aside their rivalries and seek agreement on a new president as Middle Eastern minorities are facing death and persecution.

In an interview with Reuters news agency, Jumblat voiced concern over the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), saying that Christian leaders in Lebanon need to recognize the danger of what is going on the region.

The Druze leader blamed said leaders for the ongoing presidential stalemate, refuting claims that a regional agreement is needed for a head of state to be elected.

"It's a Christian mistake. They are not seeing what is (going on) in the surroundings," he said. "It's up to them to know that by keeping this division they are making the Christian presence in Lebanon weaker and weaker."

"They are weakening themselves and weakening Lebanon."

Jumblat linked his support for another extension of the Parliament's term to the election of a president, noting that he "will just go for a technical prolongation of some months, maybe six months, conditioned on the election of a president."

PSP leader deemed ISIS as a threat to both the moderate Islam, represented by former PM Saad Hariri, and Hezbollah.

"There is a convergence, an anxiety of a common enemy ... which is good," he said. "Hariri must remind people that the Muslims of Lebanon cannot go into radicalism".

Jumblat held onto his forecast that Syria's Assad will eventually fall, stressing that "he will not survive."

"Continuing to blame Hezbollah [for fighting in Syria] will lead to nowhere," he said. "Now we have to somewhere find a kind of coordination - a political effort, a political joint venture."

"It's up to us now."