Kataeb says only the Lebanese State has the authority to speak and negotiate on Lebanon's behalf
The Kataeb Political Bureau held its weekly meeting under the chairmanship of Party President Samy Gemayel. Following deliberations, the bureau issued the following statement:
1- Sovereign decisions remain an exclusive and inherent right of Lebanon’s constitutional institutions. No foreign state or official has the authority to speak on behalf of Lebanon or make decisions on its behalf.
In this regard, the Kataeb Political Bureau condemned the repeated Iranian interference in Lebanese affairs, most recently the remarks by Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, through which Tehran seeks to once again tie Lebanon’s trajectory to Iran’s and use the country as a bargaining chip in Tehran’s regional negotiations and conflicts.
The bureau also warns Hezbollah against once again dragging Lebanon, particularly the people of the south and the Shiite community, into wars that have brought destruction, displacement, and delayed the return of residents to their villages. It calls on the Lebanese Army to tighten its security measures to prevent any military activity that could reignite the cycle of conflict in southern Lebanon.
2- After the illusion of liberating territory through armed force has been definitively dispelled, and with diplomacy becoming the only path toward completing the Israeli withdrawal and restoring sovereignty, the Kataeb Political Bureau considers that Lebanon’s national priority must be to accelerate the implementation of the framework agreement.
This requires expanding the pilot zones and completing the Israeli withdrawal from these areas, while ensuring the deployment of the Lebanese Army and the transfer of full security responsibilities to the state, in line with government decisions issued on March 2 and August 5 and 7.
The bureau stresses that these decisions aim to enforce State authority across Lebanese territory, place all weapons under the State’s control, and prohibit all military and security activities by Hezbollah, which it considers illegal. These steps are essential to restoring full sovereignty and bringing a definitive end to Lebanon’s cycle of wars.
3- The Kataeb Political Bureau welcomes the diplomatic efforts led by the Lebanese State to restore Lebanon’s position within regional and international economic initiatives.
It calls on the government and all ministers to handle these opportunities with the highest level of responsibility and to swiftly adopt the necessary decisions and executive measures to turn them into investments and development projects capable of revitalizing the national economy, creating jobs, and restoring the confidence of Lebanese citizens as well as Arab and international partners in the State’s ability to recover and rebuild.
