Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel criticized the prevalent policy of threats and intimidation that is used to muzzle anyone who speaks up against the ruling authority, warning that it is becoming part of the new identity that is being imposed on Lebanon.
"The Kataeb party will not look the other way and disregard everything that is happening. It won't tolerate the fact that anyone who speaks the truth be labeled as a traitor," Gemayel said during a dinner held by the Kataeb's Al-Majdel division.
Gemayel said that Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat is right about the uncertain identity of the Shebaa Farms given that it is located between Lebanon and Syria, noting that no Lebanese official had reclaimed it until 2000 when Hezbollah used the disputed zone as a pretext to keep its arms.
Last week, Jumblat ignited a fierce debate after stating that Shebaa Farms are not Lebanese, claiming that the Lebanese maps were altered by Lebanese and Syrian officers in 2000. The disputed territory was occupied by Israel during the Arab-Israeli war in 1967.
"If there is a real desire to restore the Shebaa Farms and the Kfarchouba Hills, the Syrian state must acknowledge Lebanon's ownership of said territories in order to ask the UN to include them in the Security Council Resolution 425 so that the Lebanese state would be able to demand its rights," Gemayel said.
"But we know that this won't take place in order to not upset Bachar Assad."
Adopted in 1978, the UNSC Resolution 425 mainly called upon Israel to cease its military action against Lebanese territorial integrity and withdraw its forces from all Lebanese territory. However, the Shebaa Farms do not fall within the scope of this resolution.
