09/02/2022

Sovereign Front for Lebanon presents its roadmap to Patriarch Raï

Originally published in French by Ici Beyrouth on February 7, 2022. The original can be found here.

By Amine Jules Iskandar for Ici Beyrouth – A delegation from the Sovereign Front for Lebanon was received last week by Syriac Maronite Patriarch Béchara Boutros Raï, to whom the delegation presented its political manifest outlining the structure of the Front as well as a roadmap with the Front’s main action points to come to a lasting solution for Lebanon’s deepest crisis.

The Front’s actions and policies fully underline the importance of Bkerki’s own initiative of neutrality as “the only positive, constructive, dignified and lasting solution for Lebanon”. Furthermore, the Front deems it imperative to implement international resolutions to curtail the power of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and its hardhanded and violent control over the country. The Sovereign Front advocates placing Lebanon under “international protection” with “permanent coordination with the Maronite Patriarchate” on the matter. At the end of the meeting, the Front issued a statement noting the historic role of the Maronite Patriarchate which has always positioned itself as a defender of Lebanon’s sovereignty, its territorial integrity, and a champion for the interests of the population in all its constituting components.

A constant dynamic

The statement emphasizes that the action points in the roadmap are all aligned with the Patriarch’s Sunday homilies and his most courageous standpoints. The first and primary of which is Lebanon’s neutrality, to which the Front has added the implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1559, 1680, and 1701. The Sovereign Front is working actively and in a constant dynamic, both nationally and internationally, to get these resolutions implemented.

The Front calls for the gathering of an international conference to save Lebanon and to stop the further deterioration of living conditions. The Front adds that “it is our legitimate right to resist any plans to dissolve the Lebanese identity and to prevent the spread of radical religious ideologies incompatible with the values of peace. It is also necessary to save Lebanon from this descent into hell which is leading the country into an increased state of isolation from international bodies such as the United Nations and the Arab League.”

And stresses the Front in the statement;

“From Bkerki, we urgently call for the disarmament and dismantling of all militias because we are faced with an armed group that represents no more than a minority in our Lebanese society (…). It is clear that this armed group remains solely determined to subjugate the Lebanese people with its weapons and its control over the state. Our life, our human dignity and our very existence are now in danger. After the destruction of the banking system, the hospital, the school, our port, and after the exhaustion of the monetary capacities of the Lebanese people by robbing them of their savings, now,  the Lebanese are threatened with their rights and security. The time has come to expel this corrupt oligarchy allied with the militia”.

“The coup of May 7, 2008, and the hostilities against the peaceful neighborhood of Ain Remméné on October 14, 2021, have strengthened the intentions of the militia and its Iranian mentor in the direction of a complete takeover and total submission of the Lebanese people through intimidation, threats, and the use of weapons. However, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard ignores our people’s history and the history of our resistance that has defeated many hegemonic plans.”

The statement concluded:

“The legal and lawful state, and only the legal and lawful state, must take back control of the ports and borders. It must manage alone the relations between Lebanon and friendly Arab and Western nations.”

The Sovereign Front was formed on September 29, 2021. It includes some twenty sovereign civil society organizations, public personalities, and political parties like the Lebanese Forces, the National Liberal Party, the Universal Syriac Union Party and the Cedar Guardians. The aim of the Front is to denounce Hezbollah’s control over Lebanon, its state and its institutions, and to reveal Hezbollah’s role as the armed wing of the Islamic Republic of Iran.


For the article in Spanish