Gemayel says opposition to confront 'Hezbollah's coup'

Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel has anew rejected Speaker Nabih Berri’s call for dialogue and said the opposition will confront what he called “Hezbollah’s coup.”

“We are the advocates of dialogue and we’re the ones who are adhering to Lebanon and partnership the most. The moment in which Hezbollah decides to reconsiders its approach we will be ready for dialogue and for finding the solutions that relieve everyone so that we live together, but we are not ready to be second-class citizens,” Gemayel said in an interview on al-Jadeed TV.

“We will use institutions, the media, our relations inside and outside the country and the peaceful and popular means to stop the coup process, and this is what Hezbollah will see, because we have moved from the attempt to find solutions to confronting a coup and we are not in a confrontation phase,” Gemayel added.

As for Berri’s dialogue call, Gemayel told the Speaker: “You can’t be the manager of a candidate’s campaign and still call for dialogue. You have a direct interest in this issue and this is a joke.”

“Berri will only open parliament for the election of Hezbollah’s ally as president … Should I go to dialogue like a sheep going to slaughter?” Gemayel wondered.

The Kataeb chief also reiterated that his camp will “block elections” to prevent Hezbollah from “imposing its candidate.”

“As long as there is an armed militia, the problem will remain present. If they elect their president he will be a puppet and if we elect our president they will kill him,” Gemayel charged.

Accordingly, he said that efforts are underway to form “a front that rejects that we be governed by a coup party” or to be “second-class citizens.”

As for Hezbollah’s candidate Suleiman Franjieh, Gemayel said: “I respect Franjieh and there is no personal problem with him. The problems is in his choices and in being imposed by Hezbollah.”

“Hezbollah wants to be a new Rustom Ghazali in Lebanon through making presidents and governments,” Gemayel lamented, referring to a Syrian intelligence officer who had major sway over Lebanon’s politics during Syria’s military presence in Lebanon.