Gemayel: Accepting Dialogue Means We Won't Tolerate Continued Presence of Illegal Arms

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel on Sunday said his party has agreed to take part in national dialogue to underline that “we will not tolerate the continued presence of illegal arms outside state control.”

“We in the Phalange Party have supported the president’s call for dialogue, despite our awareness of the current negativities in the country and the other camp’s intentions, in order to create a national environment that allows the state to address people’s concerns away from the major political conflicts,” Gemayel said in a speech during the inauguration of a party office in the Batroun town of Kfar Abida.

“We have accepted the principle of dialogue in order to raise all issues around the table rather than on the streets. Who can bear street action anymore? Our acceptance of dialogue means that once again we are stressing that we will not tolerate the continued presence of illegal arms outside state control,” Gemayel added.

He stressed that his party will not accept to “put an end to the issue of justice and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon,” adding that “our acceptance of dialogue means that once again we are rejecting the continued presence of Palestinian camps as military bases and the presence of Palestinian weapons outside camps.”

“Our acceptance of dialogue means that once again we are confirming that we will not accept the presence of this government indefinitely. We want dialogue a door to change this government instead of reviving it, not to mention that the call for national dialogue is itself an acknowledgement of this government’s failure and factional nature,” Gemayel added.

“After resolving the problem of arms, a national conference must be held, and the Phalange Party had voiced such a call in 2006 and 2008 and on more than one occasion this year, in order to agree on constitutional reforms based on our successes and failures over the last 100 years,” he said.

He noted that such a conference would “put an end to any sentiments of injustice or concern felt by any component of the Lebanese society.”

“We want the national conference to pull Lebanon out of the dilemma of the impotent, failed and weak state and out of the dilemma of neglected regions,” Gemayel added.

Addressing the latest clashes in the northern city of Tripoli, Gemayel said: “Enough with offering the North and Lebanon as an arena for others, a trench for others, a passageway for others and a barracks for others. Enough with turning the North into a front on which foreign countries and extremist movements settle their scores.”