Aoun for ISF celebration: 'Committed to providing them with all necessary support'

The Internal Security Forces (ISF) celebrated their 164th anniversary on Monday. On this occasion, President Joseph Aoun delivered a speech in which he said that the state "is committed to providing them with all the necessary support to allow them to enhance their capacities and improve their officers' living conditions."

The ISF serves as the police in Lebanon. Like all other security services and the army, they were severely affected by the crisis since 2019, especially due to the depreciation of the national currency, which has rendered their salaries worthless. Thousands of security officers have deserted their posts over the years. However, the current government has committed to improving their living conditions. It recently adopted a controversial measure to increase fuel prices to raise military salaries.

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"The ISF are not merely a security service; they represent a symbol of sacrifice and loyalty in the service of Lebanon and its people," the president stated. "Like other security services, they are the guarantors of Lebanon's stability and the protection of its citizens."

Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar, the supervising minister of the security services, also published a message on the occasion of the ISF's anniversary on X. "On this day which is yours, I can only bow to all the sacrifices each of you has made, and salute your continuous efforts to safeguard security and protect citizens," he posted. "You are the rampart that ensures the country's stability, the pillar on which it can rely in the darkest circumstances. Together, we will build a state worthy of the services you provide it, where the people will live in deserved security and dignity."

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also congratulated the ISF on their 164th anniversary in a post, stating, "continuing to bet on the officers and agents of this security service for strengthening stability, protecting official institutions, and their contribution in building a state of law."

A cedar forest

Also on the occasion of this 164th anniversary, a "forests of the martyrs of the Internal Security Forces" was inaugurated on a plot located in the Chouf Cedars Reserve (Mount Lebanon), in homage to the ISF members who fell in service.

"Like the cedars, the ISF are rooted in their community and have preserved their heritage while modernizing," said the ISF Director General, General Raed Abdallah. "This cedar forest we inaugurate today will be dedicated to the martyrs who gave their lives for their country."

MP Akram Shehayeb, also vice president of the Chouf Cedars Association, hailed the initiative as a "national and moral duty."

"It is our collective responsibility to pay tribute and remember those who shed their blood to spare that of others, to enforce the law, and maintain security," he said during the ceremony.