Kataeb Secretary-General Serge Dagher on Thursday stressed the importance of improving the relationship between Lebanon and the Gulf States that were supporting the Lebanese economy, saying that the Kataeb party does not want Lebanon to be isolated or to be part of any international conflicts.

 

“Regarding the restoration of ties with the Gulf States, We believe that there is a strategic change through a French support and Hezbollah’s control over Lebanon. The Lebanese President became the representative of the armed militia especially after the speech he delievered during his visit to the Vatican. Therefore, Hezbollah holds sway over Lebanon that became more and more isolated so we believe that some have decided to support the sovereign people and the Lebanese army. The Restoration of ties with Gulf States is not related to May legislative elections,” Dagher said in an interview with Al-Jadeed TV Channel.

 

“The Kataeb party seeks neutrality and it is against any political intervention in Lebanon. We search for a sovereign, free and neutral Lebanon and for this reason we took part of the opposition. We do not consider sovereignty as a Christian matter only. In Lebanon, we have two main problems: corruption and sovereignty,” he noted.

 

“In 2016 and before the 17 October Revolution, we took part of the opposition, we were the ones who opened the Sukleen file and demonstrated against waste and barrages and rejected the scale of salaries. Therefore, we paved the way for the revolution, and we did not take part in the system. We had a pivotal role in Lebanon, we refused to elect Nabih Berri as Speaker of the Parliament and Michel Aoun as President of the Republic,” he pointed out.

 

“When we were in the Cabinet, we filed a lawsuit against Sukleen and we voted against budgets. We considered that the financial engineering will ruin the country and we also warned against the loans taken as they won’t be recovered while no one believed in us but we were right,” he added.

 

Dagher deemed the Kataeb party as an essential part of the forces of change, saying that the number of groups who refuse to cooperate with the Kataeb party does not exceed 5 or 6.

 

“The Maarab agreement paved the way for the election of Michel Aoun as president that means handing the country over to Hezbollah and every person who was part of this agreement is a part of the system. Unfortunately, the Lebanese Forces is part of this system. The Lebanese forces has alliances with Walid Jumblat in some regions, how can we consider it as part of the opposition? The Kataeb party will forge alliance with all resigned lawmakers and the groups who seek change,” He said regarding the non-alliance between Kataeb party and Lebanese Forces.

 

“We resigned from the parliament after ghe beirut blast that was not an ordinary event, although the real place of the opposition is the parliament, but the size of the event made us refuse to sit with the authority, and therefore we resigned,” he emphasized.

 

“In the Metn, the discussion is still ongoing and we have two Kataeb candidates in this district: Samy Gemayel and Elias Hankache, and we will support the people emerging from the revolution or from the forces of change. In Keserwan, there is an alliance between Kataeb deputy Selim Sayegh and resigned lawmaker Nehmat Frem. In Batroun an alliance was forged between Majd Harb and Michel Mouawad. In Tripoli and Chouf, no alliances have been forged yet. In Zahle,we won’t have a candidate for the maronite seat but we may have a candidate for another seat. In West Bekaa, we have a Kataeb candidate and we are trying to form an electoral list. In Beirut, Nadim Gemayel is our candidate and there are continuous negotiations to form a unified opposition list,” Dagher explained concerning the electoral lists.

 

“Regarding the questioning of Central bank governor Riad Salameh and his brother Raja, We believe that it is an important matter but this questioning should have been made a while ago. We have a problem with Judge Ghada Aoun as she takes action according to a political agenda and the one related to the Presidency. Ghada Aoun was prosecuting Mecattaf Company for a political objective amid the absence of evidence, this not called “Judiciary”,” he added.