Kataeb Party leader Samy Gemayel on Tuesday urged Lebanon’s top officials to move quickly to reassert full state control over all weapons in the country, warning that Lebanon’s future hinges on restoring the state’s exclusive authority over security and decisions of war and peace.

In a televised interview with Al-Hadath, Gemayel appealed to the president, the prime minister, the army commander and all relevant authorities “to accelerate the disarmament process and act with a firm hand,” stressing that Lebanon cannot survive unless the state reclaims its constitutional role.

“This isn’t about challenging anyone,” he said. “It’s about making sure every Lebanese citizen is equal in rights and responsibilities.”

He said the state must speed up the effort to enforce its monopoly on weapons, noting that the army had taken “serious steps that we hope will move faster,” and calling for an immediate extension of those efforts north of the Litani River.

"The weapons responsible for assassinating figures of the Cedar Revolution, threatening political rivals and killing former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and others, are north of the Litani, not south of it," he said.

“For us, weapons anywhere in Lebanon are the problem, not just south of the Litani,” he said, again appealing to Lebanon’s top officials to pick up the pace and act decisively, because Lebanon’s future depends on the state doing its job and controlling all arms.

“Upholding the constitution and the principle of equality is, above all, the duty of the state,” he added. “That’s what protects Lebanon from Israel or from any external threat.”

Gemayel criticized Hezbollah for dragging the country into a confrontation with Israel without consulting the Lebanese people or their institutions.

“Hezbollah never asked the Lebanese, or the state, whether it should enter this confrontation with Israel,” he said. “It didn’t consult the government or Parliament before signing a ceasefire agreement with Israel. Hezbollah and Israel decide on their own, and the state is left to deal with the consequences without having any say in the matter.”

The only path forward, he argued, is for Lebanon to recover its decision-making power and authority. Without that, “everything else is just empty slogans,” he said, adding that a ceasefire agreement will not protect Lebanon as long as Hezbollah insists on maintaining its military structure and carrying out Iran’s agenda.

“As long as Hezbollah insists on staying as it is and implementing Iran’s decisions in Lebanon, nothing — not a ceasefire nor anything else — will make a difference,” he said.

Gemayel said the state can only play its proper role when Hezbollah places itself under its authority and turns over its weapons, allowing the Lebanese government to negotiate, defend the country and protect residents of the south and Beirut’s southern suburbs, with the help of friendly nations including Saudi Arabia and the United States. But, he added, it is clear the group believes it alone has the right to decide whether to engage in war.

“Hezbollah is not ready to hand over its weapons to the state, and we will continue down this same path,” he said.

Gemayel noted that Lebanon’s official institutions have already decided to place all weapons under state authority and assert sovereignty over all territory. If Hezbollah chooses to rearm and rebuild its military structure, he said, “the state is not responsible for that or for its actions.” He insisted that neither the state nor the Lebanese people should bear the cost of Hezbollah’s decisions, arguing that the group “chose to separate its path from the state’s path, to maintain a parallel military arsenal, to take orders from Iran, and to negotiate and reach agreements on its own.”

“It alone must bear the consequences of what happens,” he said. “The state should not shoulder that burden. For 15 years, Hezbollah has dragged the Lebanese into wars that are not theirs. It has driven Lebanon into destruction and is now trying to make the entire country pay the price.”

Gemayel stressed that Hezbollah was not originally a Lebanese creation but an Iranian one.

“The Iranian Revolutionary Guard came to Lebanon in 1982, created this organization, trained it in Iran, funded it and armed it,” he said. “Its ideology comes from Iran. Iran built for itself a military arm that would defend it if it were ever targeted.”

Today, he said, this Iranian arm “has taken the Shiite community — and all of Lebanon — hostage.”

The decision for Hezbollah to continue in this role, he added, “is an Iranian decision, not a Lebanese one.”

“There’s no Lebanese leadership inside the group making decisions based on Lebanon’s interests,” he said. “The decisions are Iranian, tied to Iran’s security. Iran has no intention of giving up this arm in Lebanon.”

He said Lebanon could have reached an agreement years ago “if we were dealing with Lebanese leaders with Lebanese priorities.” Instead, he said, “we’re not dealing with a Lebanese mindset;  we’re dealing with an Iranian one. It’s impossible for anyone to reach an outcome with Hezbollah on a Lebanese basis. Maybe the solution is to negotiate with Iran, or pressure Iran, because the decision is in Tehran.”

Gemayel said everything else in Lebanon’s political debate is secondary.

“The state must recover its authority. That’s the priority. Everything else is just empty talk,” he said, again stressing that ceasefire agreements are meaningless as long as Hezbollah follows Iranian directives.

Responding to recent comments by Israel’s foreign minister, Gemayel said such statements were irrelevant to him.

“I’m not concerned with what any Israeli official has to say,” he said. “What matters to me is the Lebanese state and the people who represent it.”

He said the demand to disarm Hezbollah and restore state authority goes back more than four decades.

“We’ve opposed armed militias for decades,” he said, noting that the Kataeb fought Hezbollah even when Israel “was perfectly satisfied with and coordinating with” the group for more than 20 years. He added that from 2006 until the recent conflict, “the Lebanese-Israeli border was calm for 18 years, and Hezbollah was, in effect, helping provide security for Israel in the south, until Iran ordered the opening of the front in support of Gaza.”

“Everyone was content to leave Hezbollah as it was, except us,” he continued. “We have always demanded the disarmament of all militias, Lebanese or non-Lebanese, so we can build a real state.”