Lebanon’s Struggle for Sovereignty Is Not Over
March 14 General Secretariat member Michel Mouawad said that Lebanon’s battles for state legitimacy, sovereignty, independence and freedom were not yet over. There are daily attempts, he added, to rescind Lebanon’s political progress and to break the will of the Lebanese people.
During the third conference for March 14 students, Mouawad said that the will of the Lebanese people is stronger than the 20 thousand missiles. “We can all choose against the culture of violence, weapons, blood and lies. Let us be clear, the battle today is over big choices and has nothing to do with whether the streets of Tehran were clean or dirty. It is not a battle concerning selected chapters of the Lebanese war. Our battle is not over attacks on PM Fouad Siniora, [Future leader MP] Saad Hariri, [Lebanese Forces leader] Samir Geagea, [Kataeb leader and Former President] Amin Gemayel, [Minister of State] Nasib Lahoud, [MP] Boutros Harb, [National Liberal Party leader] Dory Chamoun, [Head of National Bloc Party] Carlos Edde, and Michel Mouawad.”
Mouawad said that the real battle today is determine Lebanon’s future. “Today’s battle is the battle of choosing between the state and the state within the state, between security zones and illegitimate militias that claim they are for confrontation with Israel while it turned out [their target] was the Lebanese state. Our battle today is to organize relations between the Lebanese; do we want them balanced and built on partnership and consensus, or built on power struggles and weapons without understanding?”
Mouawad said that reconciliation was the first step to reinforce the state’s legitimacy. “We should all encourage reconciliation because any return to the logic of blood and weapons will destroy the society and will contradict the project of the March 14 coalition.