The leader of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea. (Credit: Photo provided by the LF.)
The leader of the Lebanese Forces (LF), Samir Geagea, stated on Saturday that the handover of illegal arms in Lebanon should take place before the end of 2025, considering that the flexible approach adopted by President Joseph Aoun "has reached its limits over time."
His remarks come as the Lebanese state attempts to regain the arms monopoly through a dialogue conducted from Baabda with Hezbollah, following the truce concluded in last November with Israel. At the same time, other political forces are calling for a clear timetable for disarmament, a demand that Hezbollah continues to reject.
In an interview published by the daily Nidaa al-Watan, Geagea emphasized the need to "gather illegal arms and hand them over to the Lebanese Army, so that Lebanon can become a real state again. President Aoun prefers to move at his own pace by adopting a very flexible approach, and we are not against that. But everything has its limits and deadlines. We do not oppose this approach that he has adopted over the last five months, but it has reached its limits in time. I therefore hope that the steps will be accelerated, especially as time and events do not wait for us," he continued.
He also said that he did not propose a deadline to the president during their meeting but stressed that "the handover of illegal arms should take place before the end of 2025." Regarding Palestinian arms, Geagea indicated that "contrary to what some claim in the media, Palestinians as an authority and overwhelming majority of factions agree with President Mahmoud Abbas's statements and fully recognize the sovereignty of the Lebanese state, but it is up to this state to set its priorities."
The dismantling of Palestinian arms in Lebanon, which was scheduled for June, failed in Lebanon mainly due to the refusal of many Palestinian factions, including within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), deeply divided and opposed to surrendering their arms. Geagea also deemed the coordination mechanism between the Lebanese Army and the cease-fire oversight committee in southern Lebanon to be "vague." "There is no clear working mechanism, and since the beginning of the cease-fire on Nov.27, 2024, until today, work and reports have been very slow," he criticized.
"No State Because of the Iranian Regime" Geagea also argued that "the actions of the Iranian regime have caused enormous damage that hindered the establishment of the state," lamenting that "Lebanon has been forced into several wars in which it had no supreme national interest, leading to a financial and economic deterioration based on the alliances made by some corrupt individuals in the country." "We do not have a state because of the current Iranian regime," he added.
Geagea also stated that he "doubts that Hezbollah is a bargaining chip for Tehran. I don't think that is possible," he added. Commenting on the current electoral law, a year before the next legislative elections, Geagea argued that the vote of expatriates requires a "genuine revision." "How can Lebanese living abroad vote only for six deputies spread across continents?" he asked. Expatriates vote for six deputies (one Sunni, one Shia, one Druze, one Maronite, one Greek-Catholic, and one Greek-Orthodox) across six continents.
"It is unacceptable that the Lebanese diaspora be deprived of the right to vote in Lebanon, and we refuse that some erect a wall of separation between Lebanese residing in the country and the diaspora," he insisted.
Meanwhile, Lebanese Foreign Minister Joe Rajji (close to the LF) emphasized on Saturday the necessity of respecting Lebanese sovereignty, stating he refuses foreign intervention in Lebanon's internal affairs. Lebanon "has no connection with maintaining the current regime in Iran," he indicated, a few days after the end of the twelve-day war between Iran and Israel amidst disagreements on the nuclear issue. "What we are asking for is one thing: respecting Lebanese sovereignty," the minister continued.
Addressing the issue of the arms monopoly in the hands of the state, Rajji stated that "the arms question must be submitted to Parliament and it is up to the Prime Minister to decide when to place it on the agenda." The Lebanese Foreign Minister referred to a famous local saying: the state "must seek to harvest the grapes, not kill the vineyard keeper."
Meanwhile, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM,) Gebran Bassil, called on Friday night for Hezbollah, his former ally, to "engage in the state-building project and hand over its arms to the state," claiming to act in "Lebanon's interest." In an interview with the local channel LBCI, MP and son-in-law of the former head of state Michel Aoun, claimed that since the signing of the cease-fire agreement between Hezbollah and Israel, "a process of limiting arms and handing them over to the state should have been initiated."
However, "this serious process of handing over arms has never really started," he asserts. "When President Joseph Aoun took charge of the question of arms handover, he could not change anything. There has been no serious dialogue with Hezbollah," Bassil further denounced. "All Lebanese have paid the price for the party's arms' presence. Therefore, these arms must benefit the Lebanese state and not Iran.
The dialogue must be decisive and not merely a way to buy time," he continued, emphasizing that "the state must leverage Hezbollah's arms instead of destroying them." Furthermore, Bassil addressed the "12-day war" between Tehran and Tel-Aviv and Hezbollah's non-involvement, an outcome long feared by the majority of parties and Lebanese opinion. "Iran managed to defend itself without resorting to Hezbollah. Proof that its arms cannot deter Israel, neither internally nor regionally. It is thus necessary that the defense mission returns to the Lebanese state," he further said.
Finally, the head of the FPM sharply criticized the government of Nawaf Salam, from which his formation is not part, accusing it of inaction: "It has no will for reform. No reformist law has been adopted since 2019, except for the lifting of banking secrecy — and that was only thanks to external pressure that it was voted in its current form," he concluded.
