LF MP says arms monopoly issue 'leaning to positivity'

MP Melhem Riachi of the Lebanese Forces has said that “the positive point in Speaker Nabih Berri’s speech (on Sunday) was his talk about a Shiite desire for resolving the issue of arms.”

“The president and the prime minister must capitalize on this development,” Riachi said in an interview with Radio Free Lebanon.

“The course in the issue of arms monopolization is leaning toward positivity and the national security strategy will become in the Swiss fashion, which means every citizen is a soldier in the national army,” Riachi added.

He noted that “Lebanon’s strength is not in marrying the two forces -- the army and the resistance -- but rather Lebanon’s strength is in its army.”

As for the Lebanese Army’s plan for disarming Hezbollah and the other armed groups, Riachi said the plan will have “a practical and dialogue-based nature, not a conflict-based nature.”

“It will take time, but what’s important is that it starts,” the MP added.

“The situation is in crisis in shape, but in reality it is under control,” Riachi went on to say, suggesting that “Lebanon is the only country in the region that is not facing an existential threat.”

He added that “the Lebanese Forces enjoys endless bravery and this bravery reaches the extent of rejecting civil war in an entire manner.”