Lebanese Forces respect Lebanon’s “Martyrs”
MP Antoine Zahra told the Voice of Lebanon radio station on Sunday that he was working to forge reconciliation between the Lebanese Forces and the Marada Movement, but some parties aimed to obstruct this attempt.
Zahra said that there was no attempt to isolate the Head of the Change and Reform bloc MP Michel Aoun, and Zahra said that he regretted Aoun’s speech on Saturday in Zgharta.
Zahra said that Aoun did not accept that he was only one of many Christian politicians in Lebanon.
Zahra added that the Lebanese Forces would not be provoked to any violent acts and it had no interest in heightening current security tensions.
He said that the Lebanese Forces respected all the nation’s “martyrs” and was open to all other parties.
Zahra said that the Lebanese Forces had never abandoned the annual commemoration, even during the period of Syrian guardianship, and would not now.
He added that there would be a large number of participants and that this memorial should not provoke anyone because the culture of the Lebanese Forces respected differing opinions.
Zahra offered his condolences to those who died during the Bsarma incident, in which clashes between Lebanese Forces and Marada Movement supporters resulted in two deaths, and called for all parties to wait for the results of the related investigation.
He concluded that the Christians in North Lebanon would participate in the mass to reaffirm their confessional, historical and national commitment to “the martyrs of the Lebanese cause.”