Gemayel says Zahle cannot bear any more internal struggle

 

Former president and Kataeb leader Amin Gemayel said that Zahle could not bear any more internal struggle. He also said he has received MP Elias Skaff’s initiative “positively.”

 

Gemayel’s statements came at the sidelines of a meeting at the Kataeb leader’s home in Bikfaya, where former leaders of the Kataeb party, former MPs and popular delegations came to offer condolences over the deaths of two party members, who were killed in a shootout Sunday in Zahle.

 

Gemayel commented on recent media reports of an exchange of letters between Syria and Israel, saying such negotiations had been going on for over a year.

 

In response to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem’s claim that the participants in the Kuwait meeting intended to internationalize the Lebanese crisis, Gemayel said the Lebanese dossier was “in the intensive care unit at the United Nations.”

 

“The evidence of that is the resolutions which have been adopted, from 1559 to 1701,” he added. Gemayel underlined UN backing for the International Tribunal as one of most important decisions made by the UN Security Council.

On the interception of a UNIFIL patrol in the southern Lebanon by armed gunmen last month, which UNIFIL spokesperson Yasmina Bouziane revealed on Wednesday, Gemayel said there was clearly a “state-within-a-state” in the South.

 

Gemayel said Speaker Nabih Berri’s call for renewed dialogue was an all-or-none deal. “It’s either accepting the full basket or murder.”