Kataeb Party leader Samy Gemayel on Friday slammed Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri for rejecting any move to reopen the debate on Lebanon’s electoral law, accusing him of distorting the rights of Lebanese expatriates and fueling divisive politics.

Berri had told MTV that “reopening the debate over the electoral law aims to isolate a sect, and that’s something we will not allow,” adding that “the government has no right to send a new law to Parliament while an existing one is still in force.”

In a post on X responding to Berri, Gemayel wrote: “Mr. Speaker, in what dictionary is the exercise by hundreds of thousands of Lebanese expatriates — from all sects and regions, without any discrimination — of their constitutional right to shape their country’s future considered ‘the isolation of a sect’?”

He went on to accuse those “who reject the principles of statehood and equality, cling to their weapons, and maintain their ideological allegiance to Iran” of being the ones truly isolating a sect “from the rest of the Lebanese,” adding that even Iran “abandons them in their most difficult times.”

“In any case, your opinion does not give you the right to stop Parliament from debating and deciding on this issue. Parliament represents all Lebanese, and it alone has the final say.”