Lebanese Forces Party leader Samir Geagea said that “Lebanon today is like a sinking ship and is going through its most difficult days, and the Lebanese have been dragged into a war for a year that has reached its peak for some time now, and it is destroying people and their houses and disrupting livelihoods.”
Geagea added, in a speech at the end of the Maarab meeting under the title “In Defense of Lebanon”: “Today, a national stand is necessary to stop the tragedies of citizens and reverse the circumstances that led to them because the Lebanese people deserve to live.”
He said: “Families in Lebanon are now sleeping on the streets and children are longing for their beds. In light of this situation we have to find radical solutions,” noting that “experience has proven that there is no stability without a state and institutions that protect everyone’s rights. The state must be restored after the structure collapsed on everyone’s heads due to hegemony of weapons, and the control of external forces over the decision of war and their use of the Lebanese people as human shields.”
Geagea pointed out that “a clear roadmap is needed to stop the bleeding at all levels and to reach a ceasefire, which will put an initial end to the disaster.”
He added: “The Arab and international communities no longer have confidence in the state of Lebanon and in the ruling system that is lurking in power and has been unable to implement the solutions proposed from abroad and has continued corruption.”
Geagea stressed that “we must go to elect a president who implements the constitution and is credible and pledges to implement international resolutions, especially UN resolution 1701 according to its provisions and the Taif Accord clauses, and pledges that the strategic decision will only be for the state and gives the army all powers in order not to leave weapons outside the state.”
He called for “binding parliamentary consultations after electing a president of the republic in order to elect a prime minister and form a government,” noting that “there is no Lebanon without a state and no state without effective constitutional institutions.”
Geagea concluded: “We pledge to the Lebanese people that we will fight the political and diplomatic battles that will lead them to safety and to neutral policies and to be a homeland of light and pluralism, not a homeland of wars.”
Translated from an article by Lebanon Files
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