We never had a state because we have no sense of citizenship. We always claimed we are Lebanese, but Lebanon is divided along confessional lines. When my father was leading the leftist parties – the national movement – he tried to change the system of Lebanon. However, the so-called progressive environment, the Baathists and the reactionist environment of the Arab world were all against having a secular state in Lebanon. When he was powerful, at one point people from certain circles – like Kissinger – said that Kamal Jumblatt was an extremist-leftist and he was eliminated. In 1975, the Americans allowed the Syrians to come to Lebanon, and they killed my father.