Prime Minister Nawaf Salam (center) awarding medals to photographers who covered the Lebanese civil war, on April 11, 2025, at the National Library in Beirut. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient-Le Jour)
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called for the 50th anniversary of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), on Sunday, to be "a turning point, and not just a moment of remembrance," during the opening of an exhibition on this conflict, organized Friday at the National Library in Beirut.
He called to "return to the Taif Agreement" signed on Oct. 22, 1989, which ended the civil war, and to "implement all its provisions." The event was attended by Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh. The prime minister also paid tribute to war photographers Michel Sayegh, a former contributor to L'Orient-Le Jour, Nabil Ismaïl, Abbas Salmane and Georges Semerdjian, who covered the civil war as part of their work.
"50 years ago, a bloody war broke out. It tore Lebanon apart across all its regions, communities, and society over a period of 15 years. Tens of thousands of victims were killed, hundreds of thousands were displaced. Loved ones disappeared or were kidnapped, and their fate remains unknown," said Salam. "This is not about reopening unhealed wounds, but about recalling lessons that must not be forgotten and reviving in our collective memory the pain and destruction our country has experienced so that memory serves as an impenetrable barrier preventing the repetition of the tragedy our country has known."
The prime minister called for a "return to the Taif Agreement," which ended the civil war.
"Let us implement all its provisions, correct those that have been implemented contrary to its letter or spirit, work to fill the gaps that have been identified, and develop it whenever the need arises," he said.
"Because the Taif Agreement provided for the extension of state authority over the entire national territory, it is necessary to emphasize today that there is no true state except in the monopoly of arms by legitimate armed forces," stated Salam. "Only they ensure the security of all citizens and are the only ones capable of extending the rule of law across the entire country and safeguarding public and private liberties. This is what the ministerial declaration of our government, the government of rescue and reform, emphasizes."
Lebanese authorities are currently discussing the disarmament of Hezbollah, a subject that has gained importance after the war between Hezbollah and Israel, from Oct. 8, 2023 to Nov. 27, 2024. Hezbollah emerged very weakened, with the loss of many of its leaders, thousands of fighters, and a significant portion of its arsenal.
'No one won'
Salam also denounced "the wars that have followed since 1975 and have threatened the country's security, destabilized it, violated its sovereignty, not to mention the killings, displacements, and impoverishment of hundreds of thousands of people."
"By examining the results of our wars over the last fifty years, it has become evident that no one won. All sides have been losers and all victories have turned out to be false. It is time to confront all the discourses that divide us and separate us into rival sects, groups, and parties, and to build a discourse that unites, heals, and establishes a state of inclusive citizenship," he declared.
"Let us make the 50th anniversary a turning point, and not just a moment of remembrance. Together, let us look towards the future, to a new Lebanon worthy of its people's sacrifices and meeting the aspirations of its youth," said the prime minister. He called for observing "a national minute of silence on April 13 at noon ... so that we can gather under the theme: 'Remembering together, building together.'''
Earlier in the day, former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Joumblatt said it would be better for the commemorations of the 50 years since the start of the civil war to observe "a minute of silence," rather than "giving lessons."
On April 13, 1975, a bus carrying Palestinians was shot at by Lebanese Phalangists, after a Christian militiaman was killed and another injured in front of a church in Ain al-Remmaneh, in the eastern suburbs of Beirut. The 27 passengers on the bus were killed. This incident is considered the trigger for the civil war.
"Regardless of the differing and conflicting opinions on the causes of the war that broke out in 1975, they all converge on the issue of the absence or incapacity of the state," said Salam, who called for rebuilding the latter. "Let us work for a strong and just state that restores confidence to our youth, a modern state that rebuilds its institutions based on competence and not clientelism, a civil state that places humans at the center of its policies."
Salam insisted on "the state's responsibility" in the case of the disappeared during the civil war. During the conflict, hundreds of people were kidnapped by Syrian forces or Lebanese militias, and the fate of the vast majority of them has still not been clarified.