Geagea accuses Hezbollah of obstructing Palestinian camps disarmament
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea accused Wednesday the Hezbollah-led camp of trying to delay Palestinian disarmament and called for a government timetable for removing all illegal Lebanese arms.
"The Hezbollah-led camp is pressuring Lebanese officials to delay the disarmament of Palestinian camps and inciting some Palestinian factions to oppose the disarmament," Geagea said in a statement.
A joint Lebanese-Palestinian committee had agreed last month that the disarmament of the first Palestinian camps in Lebanon will begin in mid-June in three Beirut camps, and other camps will follow.
"Any procrastination would show that the government is not serious and would delay the creation of an actual Lebanese state, keeping Lebanon isolated, especially from its Arab friends and obstructing any aid for the reconstruction (of war-hit regions) or for reviving the Lebanese economy," Geagea said, urging the President and the government to start taking serious steps to build a state that has a monopoly on arms and has war and peace decisions "like any other normal state."
Lebanon hosts about 222,000 Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations agency UNRWA, many living in 12 overcrowded official camps.
Most are descendants of Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their land during the creation of Israel in 1948.
Source: Naharnet
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