Walid Jumblatt Walid Jumblatt ( ) ( born 7 August 1949 ) is a Lebanese politician and the current leader of the Progressive Socialist Party ( PSP ) . He is the most prominent leader of Lebanon ' s Druze community . Early life and education . The origin of the Jumblatt family is the Kurdish Janpoulad family coming from Shamel Janpoulad and dating back to Janboulad Ibn Kassem al Kirdi al Kaisari , known as Ibn Arabou ( 1530 – 1580 ) , and governor of Aleppo . Walid Jumblatt was born in August 1949 . He is the son of Kamal Jumblatt , the founder of the PSP , the party which Walid Jumblatt currently leads . 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 " the smartest 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 , of transport and of tourism in the National Unity cabinet led by then prime minister Rashid Karami , which was formed in May 1984 . He was a supporter of Syria , but since the death of Syrian President Hafez Assad in 2000 , he has campaigned for Damascus to relinquish control . Jumblatt ' s close links with the Syrian old guard alienated after the presidency of Bashar 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 . Although , on 21 January 2011 , Jumblatt said he supported Hizbollah and Syria stance , with the onset of the Syrian civil war , Jumblatt and the PSP moved towards an anti - Assad stance . 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 . His second spouse was Gervette " Gigi , " a Jordanian woman of Circassian origin , who is the mother of his child Taymour ( born 1982 ) . His current wife is the Syrian Nora Sharabati , the daughter of the former Syrian defense minister Ahmed Al - Sharabati . In popular culture and arts . As many political leaders , Walid Jumblatt originated important imagery since the late 1970s . The photographer Ziad Antar made a portrait of him using a film expired since 1976 , provoking ghosty effect . The image supposedly evokes the danger the Lebanese Druze leader faces after having criticized Hezbollah and the Syrian regime .