Kataeb MP Elias Hankach said Lebanon was facing a rare opportunity to draw international attention and support, urging the country’s political leadership and army to act decisively to restore State authority and prevent another war.

“We have a real opportunity to save Lebanon,” Hankach  said in an interview on LBCI. “We have the president, the government and the Lebanese army. Everyone needs to understand that we cannot simply stay stuck in the same place.”

Hankach said the Lebanese army was Lebanon’s only real card and that all weapons in the country should be under its control.

“The only card we have is the Lebanese army, and the only weapons should be those of the Lebanese army,” he said. “That is where our hope lies. But at the same time, we need to see something tangible. The Lebanese people are united in their determination to avoid another war.”

He said the army now needed to implement government decisions and bring weapons under State control, arguing that Lebanon’s path out of its crisis depended on implementing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.

“Lebanon needs to return to the map of peace, and then to prosperity and stability,” Hankach said. “We have tremendous technical, medical and technological capabilities in Lebanon. What we need are the infrastructure and the right environment to allow people to put those capabilities to work.”

Hankach accused Hezbollah of having “hijacked Lebanon” and using its military power to impose its will for four decades. But he said the group was no longer as powerful as it once was and was losing political battles even inside Parliament.

He cautioned, however, that Lebanon could not instantly reclaim its former image as the “Switzerland of the East.”

“We cannot go back to being the Switzerland of the East with the push of a button,” he said. “We need time, and we need a national dialogue and reconciliation conference where people can express their concerns. No enemy lasts forever, especially when the conflict is internal. We are all seeking peace.”

Hankach recalled a meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri during which Berri told him that four decades of work and sacrifice had been destroyed in just 60 days.

“I visited Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri some time ago on a party-related matter, and he told me, ‘By God, my son, 40 years of hard work and sacrifice were destroyed in 60 days,’” Hankach said.

“In my view, Berri was not referring only to Israel. He was also referring to the decisions taken by Hezbollah,” he added. “This was during the first war, when the destruction was still limited to about 50 villages in the south.”

Hankach said political forces would do their part if the State carried out its responsibilities, but stressed that the central issue remained the State’s monopoly over weapons.

“If the State does its job, we will do ours,” he said. “But the fundamental task is to put all weapons in the hands of the State.”

Hankach said international support for the Lebanese army could have been stronger and that the army could have demonstrated better results, but he rejected criticism of the institution itself.

“I believe other countries could have provided greater support to the army, and we could have demonstrated better performance,” he said. “But I do not blame the army because it is our way out. What matters now is that it clearly and tangibly demonstrates that it is doing its job.”

He said four decades of security laxity by the State had given Hezbollah the opportunity to build the power it needed to take control of key parts of the country’s institutions.

Asked about the end of the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping mission UNIFIL, Hankach said there had been discussion of an international force or mechanism that could take over the task of helping enforce peace, but that too many variables remained to know how the situation would ultimately unfold.

Hankach warned that Lebanon could not afford to remain trapped in a cycle of war.

“If we remain at war, we cannot do anything,” he said. “There will be no investors and no donors, especially when Hezbollah dragged us into a war that it was not capable of taking responsibility for.”

Turning to Parliament, Hankach said lawmakers were still required to vote by a show of hands, despite a proposal submitted by Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel in 2010 to introduce electronic voting.

“Today, Parliament still operates under a rule that requires us to vote by a show of hands,” Hankach said. “Samy Gemayel submitted a bill in 2010 to introduce electronic voting. That would allow the people to hold us accountable as lawmakers. The system is already there in front of every MP. We just need to use it.”

Hankach said Lebanon’s leadership now faced two choices: reach a settlement or take firm decisions.

“With the leadership’s knowledge, there are two options: either reach a settlement or take decisive action,” he said. “After a year and a half, we have reached a dangerous point. Today, the international circumstances are in our favor, and we are at a foundational stage.”

“My appeal, with all due respect and in good faith, to the president and the prime minister is to make the most of this opportunity,” he said. “What we need is to reach safe shores. Once we get there, we can discuss everything else.”