NNA – President of the Republic Michel Aoun underlined, in a national address upon the 73rd memory of Lebanon’s Independence, that it is time to venture into the workshop of building the nation which requires everybody, adding that it will be beneficent to all.
“The hopes you have pinned on this tenure are as great as your sacrifices, suffering, and patience. Just like we started this path together, we shall complete it together. Brace yourselves because it is time to build the nation, and this workshop requires everybody, and everybody will benefit from it,” Aoun said, addressing the Lebanese.
“The independence is not just an annual celebration, but rather the belonging of people sharing life, upon a land that gives us our identity, and that we must not treat as a commercial product put for sale on foreign markets; if we sell it, we lose our identity,” he indicated.
“It is our duty to protect independence and to restitute its power, which means ceasing to resort to foreign [sides] to implore decisions pressuring the country, at the account of the public interest,” he added.
“Bolstering national unity is a major necessity and a priority, because it fortifies Lebanon and secures its stability,” he stressed, highlighting the obligation to heed citizens in the border regions in both the south and the north.
Tackling the condition of the state institutions, Aoun noted the tribulations in that respect, blaming corruption.
“Things will not be rectified unless humans are free from the culture of corruption,” he said.
Moreover, Aoun heaped praise on the Lebanese army “which despite what is happening around Lebanon, remained up to the confidence of the Lebanese.”
“The army can do along borders what it is doing inside the country, if its technical capacities are geared up,” he said.
