Resolution 1701 is the natural framework for solving the problems in Lebanon
Former President Amin Gemayel expressed his worries that the current status of the ministerial statement was a “continuous failure on all the levels.”
“It is a victory for the government to absolutely declare, through the ministerial statement, its intentions and the plan. All sovereign decisions must be made without the interference of others,” Gemayel added.
“From now on, there shall be no neglect, since Lebanon has paid the biggest price for its sovereignty and because it had abandoned its official responsibilities on the national level,” he noted.
During a meeting of the Kataeb political bureau, which Gemayel headed at his residence in Bikfaya, the former president said he considered that UN Security Council Resolution 1701 was approved “nationally,” adding that it was a “normal and rational framework to resolve all the problems that the country is encountering.”
Gemayel questioned what Hezbollah’s excuse to keep its arms could be, after all local leaders had agreed that the Israeli – Lebanese border must be “under the protection of the Lebanese Army and under the veil of the UNIFIL.”
”It is enough to watch all the initiatives around us in the direction of peace, negotiations and stability, and especially the Syrian –Israeli negotiations through intermediation , or the Hezbollah negotiations with Israel in relation to the detainees ,” Gemayel commented. “The government must be given the chance to use the same means – negotiations through and intermediary – to resolve the problems still hanging with Israel , such as the Shebaa Farms, Kafarchouba, and Ghajar.”
Gemayel concluded by saying that the “rational” means of negotiation was through a neutral third party as had been happening in the world, at times “at the expense of national constitutional institutions.”