Persevering Dialogue Will Resolve Pending Issues
The head of the Lebanese Forces leader expressed his regret over what he sees as the return of Syrian interference in Lebanon and confirmed his desire to see national dialogue through in an interview with a local daily.
In an interview with the al-Aamal daily, to be published Friday, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said diplomatic exchange between Syria and Lebanon was the first step of what Syria owed Lebanon. And while he regretted that Syria again had the chance to interfere in Lebanese affairs after 18 years, Geagea said, he was not concerned that France or the US would make any strategic changes in their stance on Syria.
“Shortly after Taif, all arms were militias and there were no weapons called the weapons of the Resistance,” Geagea said.
“If we succeed in implementing the item on collecting the arms of militias, starting with non-Lebanese weapons … we would not have reached where we are today,” he told the daily. “But the insistence of Syria and its allies at the time to collect the weapons of Mount Lebanon was aimed at ending first the Lebanese Forces and the Progressive Socialist Party and left all the rest.”
“Syria was not satisfied with the implementation of what it wanted of Taif, but jumped over the text to return to an armistice agreement with Israel, which led to the disasters of Syrian policy and its allies in Lebanon.”
On the March 14 alliance, Geagea recalled that the “spirit” of the alliance and confirmed that the two parties closest to one another were the Kataeb and the Lebanese Forces.
“We have to recognize that the spirit of March 14 … did not come by accident. Therefore, the movement is deep and comprehensive.”
And on the possibility that the March 14 forces could suggest a means to resolve the issue of Hezbollah’s arms, Geagea raised the concept of Lebanon’s national dialogue table. “If we have to carve it in stone, we will continue this dialogue in order to solve this problem. This is what I see in each position I take.”