Sami Gemayel Meets Geagea, Says Tripoli Clashes Result of Inability to Control Arms Possession
Phalange Party Central Committee Coordinator MP Sami Gemayel blamed the ongoing clashes in the northern city of Tripoli on the state's “inability to control the possession of arms.”
"The state is unable to control the possession of weapons or the situation in Tripoli,” Gemayel said after holding talks with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea in Maarab.
He continued: “We asked the state more than three years ago to seize the fighters' arms to save the city's residents from paying the price of the Syrian conflict.”
"The policy of disassociation, the implementation of the law and seizing weapons are the step that should be adopted to protect Lebanon and the Lebanese people.”
The young MP considered that officials in the country do not pay any respect to the principals upon which Lebanon was established, to the law or to the Lebanese constitution.
"The Lebanese state today is hostage in the hands of groups that decided to wait until the Syrian war is over,” Gemayel stated.
He added: “We are in front of two options. It is either we act like everyone else and overrule laws, or we resist until achieving the change we aspire.”
"We ask the Lebanese people to love their country and to demand changing the manner in which it is being ruled.”
The toll in the ongoing fighting in Tripoli rose to at least six dead and more than 70 injured on Friday.
The clashes broke out on Monday evening as celebratory gunfire erupted in the Tripoli neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen over Syrian President Bashar Assad’s appearance on al-Mayadeen television for an interview.
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