NNA – Kataeb party President, Sami Gemayel, tied the participation in the government to “the formation atmosphere”, revealing that contacts are underway with all the political components over this matter.
“If there is a will to include and respect everyone, the Kataeb would not mind participating in the government at the service of Lebanon,” he said.
“It is wrong to consider those who have not voted for the President as opposition. The system in Lebanon is not presidential but parliamentary, and therefore, the opposition is formed against the Prime Minister,” Gemayel explained, confirming the Kataeb’s right to be represented in the government to come.
“Prime minister-designate, Saah Hariri, who has been nominated by the Kataeb, has decided, in coordination with the President, to form a national accord government,” he went on, uttering surprise over the attempts to isolate the Kataeb party.
“These attempts are clear in every statement,” he said in this regard, assuring that the party’s positions came in accordance with its stances over the past 10 years.
“The Kataeb never ceded its principles and it never will. It is ready to wage all the political and national battles possible, and no one can eliminate it. It is impossible to build a country if not based on the once joint constants of the Cedar Revolution between the Kataeb party, President Michel Aoun, Premier Saad Hariri and Dr. Samir Geagea. However, political calculations can separate between comrades at some stages,” he said.
Gemayel noted that “the presidential election happened via foreign settlement and internal submission.”
“President Michel Aoun is a man of surprises and he enjoys a strong personality. We and the Free Patriotic Movement youth waged pitched battles between the years 1990 and 2005 against the Syrian occupation,” he reminded, assuring that President Aoun’s approach today seems more positive and open.
“We will give a chance to the new mandate, and we will hold it accountable for its actions not for its intentions. A new page is open at the national level, and we must give this phase a chance,” the Kataeb president concluded.
