Aoun: State protects all sects, cabinet decisions unprecedented

President Joseph Aoun stressed Monday the need that Lebanon “meet the Arab and international interest in the country through boosting the confidence restoration steps.”

“We must properly make use of the numerous opportunities that Lebanon has through exiting the sectarian and partisan alleways toward a single party, which is Lebanon, and a single sect, which is the Lebanese sect,” Aoun said in a meeting with a delegation of Lebanese businessmen.

“Lebanon of the sects cannot create a state. The state is what protects all sects and preserves the country,” the president emphasized.

“Cabinet is a platform for exchanging viewpoints and taking decisions after discussions, and this is what has actually happened, seeing as it has led to the issuance of unprecedented decisions,” Aoun went on to say.

The Lebanese government had on August 5 tasked the army with preparing a plan for the removal of weapons and presenting it to Cabinet prior to August 31, with an ultimate goal of completing the disarmament plan by year end.

Hezbollah has rejected the government’s decisions and said it will deal with them as if they do not exist.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he welcomes the Lebanese cabinet's "momentous decision," adding that if Lebanon takes the necessary steps to disarm Hezbollah, then Israel will respond with reciprocal measures, including a phased reduction of the Israeli military presence in southern Lebanon.

Since the Israel-Hezbollah war ended in November with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, Hezbollah officials have said the group will not discuss its disarmament until Israel withdraws from five hills it controls inside Lebanon and stops almost daily airstrikes that have killed or wounded hundreds of people, most of them Hezbollah members.

Lebanon is under U.S. pressure to disarm the group that recently fought a 14-month war with Israel and was left gravely weakened, with many of its political and military leaders dead.