The Lebanese Kataeb Party said a video circulating on social media showing its leader and lawmaker Samy Gemayel was old and had been taken out of context, rejecting claims that he had proposed integrating Hezbollah’s militia into the Lebanese army.

In a statement, the party’s media department said the footage was taken from a full interview and had originally been produced and published by a Hezbollah-affiliated website bearing the group’s logo. It said the excerpt was now being circulated without its broader context in an effort to distort the Kataeb’s position.

The party said Gemayel’s remarks in the video were not a proposal to integrate Hezbollah’s fighters into the army. Rather, it said, he was discussing possible ways of addressing the issue of weapons while explicitly rejecting the model of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces.

“The Kataeb’s position is clear and consistent: no to legitimizing weapons outside the State, and no to integrating Hezbollah’s militia into the army or any security institution,” the party said.

The statement came in response to the circulation of the video, which the Kataeb said had been used to portray its position differently from its publicly declared stance on Hezbollah’s weapons and the state’s authority over arms.

The party said it was not surprising that Hezbollah would take statements out of context or distort them, but criticized what it described as the use of Hezbollah-produced material by people who present themselves as supporters of Lebanese sovereignty.

“What is surprising and deplorable is that some of those who present themselves as sovereigntists are using material produced by Hezbollah’s media apparatus and bearing its logo to attack the Kataeb and its sovereignist positions,” the statement said.

The Kataeb urged anyone seeking to assess its position to refer to the full interview as well as its publicly announced positions, rather than relying on an excerpt produced by Hezbollah-affiliated media.

“Sovereignty cannot be defended with material produced by those who contradict it,” the party said.