The President of the Kataeb Party, Samy Gemayel, criticized the upcoming national meeting that President Michel Aoun recently called for. He deemed its topic of dialogue “out of place.”
In a press conference he held on Tuesday, Gemayel called on President Aoun to call instead for a dialogue on the real issues in which “we are floundering.”
The MP requested a discussion that covers the issues of “sovereignty, controlling weapons, putting every gun at the disposal of the army, rejecting any military system outside the framework of the state,” assuring, “we are ready to accept any dialogue on [these issues].”
Gemayel also opposed any political talk that calls on the Lebanese to be silent, or “the dialogue of silent death,” and, instead, asked for a meeting that tackles what he called the cause of Lebanon’s problems.
Additionally, the Kataeb leader urged the president to “lay the fundamental [issues] on the table” and insisted, “we are the people of dialogue and its advocates, and we are among those who seek peace, for the country to be civilized, and for people to meet with each other.”
Further criticizing the timing of the national meeting, Sami Gemayel pointed out that it came “after the closure of all doors and the demand to go east towards Iran and Syria.”
He explained that the authority has not considered “the solutions that we are suggesting” and that Lebanon is embarrassing itself before the only remaining solution, namely the International Monetary Fund, on which he said, “I don’t know if the IMF takes us seriously.”
This is because, as Gemayel put it, “the Lebanese authority has gone to [the IMF] with three numbers,” implying the stark disagreement among the officials regarding the true numbers reflecting Lebanon’s financial situation.
Finally, the MP blamed the state for the lack of organization in the processes of money transfer and withdrawal.
“The private sector is bearing the responsibility of the state’s failure and some parties’ policy, and the state is trying to control the exchange rate through the police,” he concluded.
Samy Gemayel’s remarks come after various political leaders announced their intent to boycott the national meeting, as did Lebanon’s four ex-premiers.
Samy Gemayel is the son of former Lebanese President Amine Gemayel. He is the nephew of former Lebanese President and martyr Bashir Gemayel, and the brother of martyr MP Pierre Gemayel.
