Geagea says govt.’s 1st mission should be removing illegal arms

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has stressed that “it is impossible to achieve any reform or secure any stability without accomplishing full and real sovereignty.”

“The path to reform is the rise of an actual state,” said Geagea during the annual iftar banquet in Maarab.

“The first mission of the current government should be to directly and publicly ask the Lebanese Army to … collect all illegal weapons and dismantle all illegitimate military and security structures across Lebanon, within a specified and clear timeframe, as originally stipulated in the Taif Agreement, and without any delay or procrastination,” Geagea added.

As for the situation in the South, the LF leader said that “Israel’s staying on any grain of soil of Lebanon’s land is categorically rejected, but we don’t have the luxury of fooling ourselves and others, seeing as combating this occupation and removing it can only happen through Lebanon’s friends in the Arab world and internationally, through political force and diplomatic means.”

Responding to those talking about the failure of political force and diplomatic means, Geagea said “what’s laughable yet lamentable is that military means have not only failed, but have led to the re-occupation of territory and to bringing unprecedented disasters, death and destruction.”

As for the reconstruction process, the LF leader said “it is a national duty that cannot be abandoned,” but emphasized that “we also need the support of the Arab and Western worlds to be able to accomplish it.”