A final statement was issued today, Saturday, by the "National Meeting," which brought together the opposition forces in Maarab. The participants expressed that "as parties, blocs, independent deputies, opinion leaders, and individuals united by national concerns, we are pained by the state of our beloved country in general, and the south in particular. We are alarmed by the absence of the state to the point of complete atrophy, the violation of its sovereignty to the point of total infringement, and the disarray of its security to the point of collapsing all laws and rights, including the fundamental right to a safe and dignified life."
The attendees stated, "We come to launch a loud cry on behalf of those we represent, in the name of those who are deliberately being marginalized. We represent the overwhelming majority of the people, and in the name of the values we believe in — democracy, freedom, and justice — we raise our voice against those tampering with our security: stop meddling, stop protecting criminals, stop dragging Lebanese into conflict, and stop the states and regimes sponsoring illegal organizations in our homeland."
They added, "We come united in our determination to confront the power of weapons with the strength of right and position, steadfast in our insistence on restoring the kidnapped state that is beholden to a unilateral decision that grips our lives, our war, and our peace, discrediting critics and eliminating resistance against its project."
The final statement read, "We gathered today to continue the project of democratic political confrontation, to confront the disintegration of institutions by insisting on implementing the constitution, to oppose the vacuum by adhering to the necessity of electing a president according to its mechanisms, to confront the weapon of force with the determination to confiscate it and limit it to the hands of the legitimate state and its unified army, and to confront the laxity at our borders — south, east, and north — by fully aligning with the constitution and laws as well as international resolutions."
The participants also pointed out, "Yesterday, martyr Pascal Sleiman was assassinated, who would not have been martyred if it weren't for the entrenched culture of impunity and the complete overlap between militia weapons and mafia weapons, along with their ease of movement within Lebanon and across the borders with Syria, had there not been a coexistence of these two forms of weaponry in a shared environment where they grow together, and due to the absence of security and the hesitance of those holding the state to rein in the majority of criminals."
They continued, "It is no longer acceptable for us all to tolerate that the title of resistance be used as an excuse for the security erosion across various areas of our homeland, and that through this title the decision of war and peace be appropriated from the sovereign state to a Lebanese faction receiving its orders from abroad, thus dragging the Lebanese people into an endless series of wars, the latest chapter of which is currently unfolding in our beloved south."
They emphasized that "the risk of expanding the ongoing war in southern Lebanon is present and grave, which has resulted only in the killing of Southerners, their displacement, the destruction of their crops, and the demolishing of their homes, compounded by the rampant weapons within the country without any deterrent that compels us to declare the following constants:
1. Weapons outside the state security institutions, foremost among them the army, regardless of the bearer or reason for carrying, pose a threat to Lebanese sovereignty and are a blatant assault on the security of the Lebanese people as a whole, necessitating an immediate withdrawal.
2. The Lebanese army, with its leadership and personnel, is the trusted entity of all Lebanese, and thus it has the right and duty to protect the Lebanese borders and sovereignty from any foreign aggression, especially from Israel.
3. The Lebanese government, even if it is a caretaker government, exclusively bears the responsibility for the application and enforcement of Lebanese laws and international resolutions alike, as it's impossible to conceive of a complete void and total dereliction in a matter that threatens national security and the supreme Lebanese interest, without overlooking the role of the Parliament in holding the government accountable nationally, even if it's a caretaker government."
The participants asserted, "Based on what has been stated, and recognizing the utmost priority of addressing the current situation in the south, and the possibility of it deteriorating further, the participants in this meeting today appeal to the caretaker government headed by President Najib Mikati to act immediately on:
First: Implementing Resolution 1701 in its entirety by issuing orders to deploy the Lebanese army south of the Litani River and along the entire border with Israel, for this step carries significant political weight and decisive deterrent power against any plans Israel may have, and curtailing any potential aggression against Lebanese sovereignty.
Second: Enhancing monitoring across the entire border with Syria and working to regulate the legal border crossings, closing all illegal ones through which weapons, persons, funds, goods, contraband and criminals are still being smuggled.
Third: Implementing an urgent and decisive plan to repatriate Syrians living illegally on Lebanese territory back to their homeland, in accordance with the agreement signed in 2003 between the Lebanese state and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which does not consider Lebanon a host country, as the presence of these individuals undermines the foundations of the entity and constitutes a ticking time bomb on the verge of explosion."
Finally, the participants stated, "Lebanon today is in distress, its sovereignty is violated, its constitutional institutions are paralyzed, its economy is in ruins, and its security is at the mercy of illegal weapons." The attendees concluded in their final statement: "The responsibility of rescue rests on all of us, a responsibility we bear before God and history. We today implore the living Lebanese people, who have endured all the tragedies and calamities, clinging to the message of Lebanon, its identity, and the greatness of its democratic heritage, a people that expelled occupation in the independence uprising of 2005; we urge them to reconstruct independence and achieve sovereignty, hoping that this time it will be complete independence and enduring sovereignty in the protection of the constitution and law."
