Kataeb party leader Samy Gemayel. (Credit: NNA file photo)
"The political system will not change as long as Hezbollah controls Lebanon," stated Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel.
This is how the leader responded to the "proposal" of his ally in the opposition, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. In a speech delivered in early September, the latter said he was in favor of a dialogue around the "Lebanese political formula" after the election of a president.
"Lebanon must be liberated before talking about the political system," Gemayel said in an interview with the daily an-Nahar on Wednesday. "Talking about this will divide the Lebanese and make this liberation more difficult."
He argued that Hezbollah would not allow the establishment of a federal system or even decentralization as long as it controls the country.
The Kataeb leader also called for a union between all Lebanese communities to politically confront Hezbollah.
"We cannot confront Hezbollah on the political level by starting from a sectarian approach, because saying that this Shiite-Christian confrontation is a suicidal speech for Christians, for Shiites and for Lebanon," he said. "We consider that it is a national cause that concerns all Lebanese and that they must lead it united, Christians or Muslims."
In his last speech, the leader of the LF had emphasized the role of Christians in Lebanon and the importance of their presence, which earned him accusations of isolationism, including from some of his Sunni allies.
Gemayel said that Hezbollah had to find itself alone facing a united political bloc so that it would be ready to make concessions. He also made sure to stress that his relations with the LF were "good."
Regarding the arrest of former Bank of Lebanon governor Riad Salameh, accused of embezzlement, the Kataeb leader said that "the era of impunity will only end when those who assassinated [former Prime Minister] Rafik Hariri are imprisoned, and not with the incarceration of Riad Salameh."
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon convicted several Hezbollah members in the investigation into the 2005 assassination of the former prime minister.
Samy Gemayel added: "I do not believe that this political class, which benefited with Riad Salameh from everything that happened during the 2019 crisis, is serious about accountability."
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.