Following their meeting in Mukhtara, Progressive Socialist Party leader MP walid Jumblatt and Free patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun held a joint press conference .
Aoun said today,” we are witnessing an exceptional meeting that is not a reconciliation meeting because reconciliation has already started … we are meeting to establish peace in Mount Lebanon.
“We are laying the foundation for decades of peace, which has moved beyond reconciliation and openness,” Aoun added.
The FPM leader noted that he has never visited Mukhtara before as a political figure and added that he last passed through the village in 1975.
Aoun touched on possible reconciliatory meetings between other Christian parties in the Mountain, saying their differences are part of the political reality of democracy.
Jumblatt, in turn, said that the purpose the meeting was to reinforce the reconciliation, frankness , openness and peace that have been achieved.
“Our duty is to provide coming generations with peace and love after the tragedies in the Mountain,” he added.
following their meeting in Mukhtara they headed to Beiteddine .
In Beiteddine Jumblatt said : We achieved reconciliation in 2001 when the general was in exile but his supporters were being beaten and arrested; and it was under the patronage of the father of reconciliation and independence Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir.
In Beiteddine Aoun said : “Today, our gathering is historical while aiming at treating a historical issue through refreshing the memory and facing the facts. Civil wars can’t be erased except by a courageous act that surpasses conventional treatments.”
Today, there is a period of calm and we have to think of a new approach; and to restructure our political reasoning and relations. The suffering of the Lebanese people today is a result of the culture of seclusion and isolationism, He added
Aoun called on all of our citizens in Mount Lebanon and all areas to “erect a memorial monument that carries the martyrs’ names wherever they fell and however they fell”.
Aoun added: The European peoples managed to triumph over their pains and grieves, to face the truth, and to overcome their civil wars. We should realize that civil war is a destiny that we create with our own hands and not an imposed act of fate.”
On his way to Mukhtara in Shouf region of Mt Lebanon Aoun stopped in Deir al Qamar’s al-Talleh Church. During a speech at the church he stressed the importance Druze-Christian unity in Mount Lebanon : “This visit is addressed to all of the Shouf residents, Christians and Druze, so that we restore harmony in Mount Lebanon.” He said.
Aoun was forced to cancel a visit to Chamoun Family Burial Ground because of protests against his visit by Deir el Qamar residents .
Democratic Gathering MP Doury Chamoun told LBC , Aoun has to apologize to the Chamoun family and the National Liberal Party.
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