Legitimacy of Hezbollah’s Arms Vanished in Taif, Constitution
During the second parliamentary session held to discuss the Ministerial Statement on Wednesday, Lebanese Forces bloc MP Elie Keyrouz said that Hezbollah’s arms have lost legitimacy in the Taif Accord and the Lebanese constitution, especially after the Lebanese no longer agree on the nature of the party’s weapons.
He said that the concept of the Resistance is “no longer” valid after Israel’s withdrawal from South Lebanon in 2000, adding, “There is no justification for maintaining [Hezbollah’s] arms or any weapon outside the authority of the Lebanese state.”
He added that “the state would not be a real state” if it does not have the sole authority to take any decision it sees fit.
He commented on Lebanese-Syrian relations and said that “in order to improve them, pending issues between the two countries need to be resolved, especially with regard to Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons, and specifically in the case of Boutros Khawand,” an Lebanese Forces official who was kidnapped in September 1992 and is believed to be detained in Syria.
Keyrouz called to dissolve the Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council and to shut down the Palestinian military bases outside the refugee camps.
He also attacked the March 8 coalition’s political rhetoric, saying it “uses terms and provides explanations, which are suspicious, which violate the constitution and which defy common sense.” He cited as an example Speaker Nabih Berri’s proposal to form a national committee to abolish political sectarianism, which he said “threatens Lebanon’s message of coexistence.”
He added that the LF demands granting Lebanese expatriates their right to vote, adding that it requests Interior Minister Ziad Baroud to resolve the contentious issue related to naturalizing those residing in Lebanon.