Time has come to resolve weapons issue
Nadim Gemayel, son of slain president-elect Bashir Gemayel, on Tuesday said that the time had come for the Lebanese state to resolve the issue of weapons outside the control of the government, and extend its sovereignty across the entire country.
After a meeting with the Maronite Bishop of Beirut, Boulos Matar, Gemayel denounced the helicopter shooting in Soujoud, which killed an officer in the Lebanese army, Samer Hanna, who was posthumously promoted to captain.
Gemayel said that “the martyrdom of Captain Samer Hanna has made it clear to us that there is no room for a defensive strategy that declares that the situation today necessitates arms to protect arms -this logic we must get rid of.”
Gemayel also said, in reference to Hezbollah, that the party the gunman was a member of should be held accountable for the officer’s death.
National dialogue was necessary not only to resolve the issue of Hezbollah, he continued, but also to discuss all outstanding issues that threaten the country, be they extremists inside Palestinian refugee camps or Palestinian weapons outside the camps.
Gemayel, whose uncle heads the Kataeb party, said that the Gemayel family would be represented in parliament in 2009. However, Gemayel did not announce who the party’s representatives would be, and he would only say that the candidates’ names would be made known in due course.