Lebanon must restore its sovereignty, reclaim national decision-making and build a strong and capable State if it is to become the country its people aspire to, Kataeb Party leader Samy Gemayel said.

Speaking at a ceremony honoring members of the Kataeb's Batroun district who have belonged to the party for 50 years, Gemayel said the State must act with authority and without fear or hesitation, while Lebanese citizens should support its efforts to restore sovereignty and freedom.

“We’re at a turning point in Lebanon’s history,” Gemayel said, describing the country as emerging from what he called a period of “Iranian tutelage” that had dragged Lebanon into a war in which its people had no stake and turned them into “fuel for the interests of the Iranian regime.”

He said the current moment represented an opportunity Lebanon could not afford to waste.

“This is an opportunity we cannot let slip away,” Gemayel said. “It would not have been possible without a president and a prime minister who have taken a clear position in favor of sovereignty, and without a unified Lebanese position around the principle of sovereignty. If we waste this opportunity, Lebanon will pay a heavy price.”

Gemayel said Lebanon should not return to a system in which armed groups operate outside State authority.

“We’re not going backward,” he said. “We will not accept Lebanon returning to a state of tutelage, and we will not accept a country where people are expected to live alongside weapons outside the State's control. Lebanon cannot function under the shadow of weapons, our economy cannot grow that way, and emigration will not stop as long as weapons remain outside state authority.”

He warned against any future arrangement that could allow armed groups to pull Lebanon into another conflict.

“Let nobody think we’re prepared to go back to a situation where these weapons could drag us into another war two years from now, five years from now, 10 years from now or even 20 years from now,” he said.

Gemayel described the issue of illegal weapons as a defining moment for Lebanon and said all parties had to assume responsibility for resolving it.

“This is a decisive choice in Lebanon’s history,” he said. “The solution isn’t going to happen by itself. We have to make it happen, and the state has to show that it is fully carrying out its constitutional role.”