Newly elected President Joseph Aoun said on Saturday that he has not come to “work in politics, but rather to build a state.”
Such a state “can only be built upon fairness and equality among all components, who are united by one identity,” Aoun told Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan in a meeting at the Baabda Palace .
“There are neither winners nor losers and we have witnessed what has recently happened, when everyone sustained damage,” Aoun added, in reference to the recent war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Enough suffering
“This country and its people have had enough and the coming generations and our elderly do not need more suffering,” Aoun said.
He added: “We are before a major opportunity which we can win or lose, and in order to benefit from it we have to be hand in hand.”
“The right to differ is sacred, but the right to disputes is prohibited,” President Aoun
The president also hoped that the new government “will be formed as soon as possible so that things can be put on the right track and to build bridges of confidence with the world.”
He adeed that the Lebanese should benefit from foreign assistance instead of using it to intimidate each other. In reference to the American and Saudi help in rebuilding Lebanon after the devastating war between Hezbollah and Israel left the predominately Shiite areas in ruins
“No sect is superior over another and no person is superior over another. We are all Lebanese, we carry the same identity, we chant the same national anthem and the Lebanese flag is for us all. The right to differ is sacred, but the right to disputes is prohibited,” Aoun went on to say.
Aoun told lawmakers on Thursday in his first speech at parliament after he was elected that he will work to ensure the state has the exclusive right to carry arms.
His comments were seen partly as a reference to Hezbollah’s arsenal
Aoun pledged that his election would usher in a “new phase in Lebanon’s history” and work to end the Israeli occupation of Lebanon. In his inauguration speech, which received positive reactions from most Lebanese parties, Aoun said: “Lebanon is as old as history, our trait is courage, our strength is adaptation, and no matter how much we differ, when times are tough we embrace each other, and if one of us breaks, we all break.”
He added: “If we want to build a country, we must all be under the umbrella of the law and the judiciary,” stressing that “interference in the judiciary is prohibited, and there are no immunity for criminals or corrupt people, and there are no mafias, drug smuggling, or money laundering.”