Lebanon is at a decisive turning point and cannot emerge from its current crisis by returning to the same status quo that prevailed before, Lebanese Kataeb Party leader Samy Gemayel said, calling for decisive measures to enforce State authority and resolve once and for all the issue of illegal weapons.

Speaking at the annual dinner of the Central Sector of the Kataeb's Metn District, Gemayel said Lebanon could no longer afford to procrastinate on its most fundamental problems, arguing that the continued presence of armed groups outside State authority was preventing the country from achieving lasting stability. 

Gemayel said Lebanon needed to build a State capable of protecting its citizens, defending its sovereignty and making decisions independently.

"The presence of weapons outside State institutions is no longer an issue Lebanon can afford to put off," he said. "As long as there are weapons beyond the State's control, we cannot build a stable country. We keep the logic of war alive, put our young people's future at risk and push Lebanese to leave their homeland."

He said Lebanon, after years of crises and conflict, could no longer continue passing its unresolved problems from one generation to the next.

"What Lebanon needs now is to settle the question of weapons and national decision-making once and for all, so that the state is the only authority throughout the country," he said.

Gemayel pointed to the Lebanese Civil War as evidence of the price the country had paid for failing to establish a state monopoly over weapons.

"If Lebanon had established in 1975 that all weapons must be under the authority of the State, we would be living in a very different country today — economically, developmentally and in terms of stability," he said.

He added that Lebanon would also have retained more of its human capital instead of seeing generations of citizens leave to build their lives abroad.

Gemayel said the State envisioned by the Lebanese was one based on institutions, the army, the judiciary, the Constitution and the rule of law.

"What army in the world would accept having another armed force operating alongside it, with a separate source of legitimacy, controlling parts of the country and imposing its authority while the national army is still there?" he asked.

He called for the Lebanese army to reclaim its role as the army of the entire country and for the state to exercise exclusive authority across Lebanese territory.

The issue, he said, went far beyond security.

"Resolving the weapons issue is not simply a security matter," Gemayel said. "It is a basic requirement for restoring Lebanese people's confidence in their state and giving them a future they can believe in."

Gemayel said Lebanon's current conflict should mark the end of the country's long cycle of wars and crises rather than another stage in it.

"This war must be the final page in Lebanon's history of wars and crises," he said, calling for a new era centered on peace, prosperity and openness.

That future, he said, should be built around "one state, one set of weapons and one national decision."

The Kataeb leader has also said Lebanon should give diplomacy a chance while ensuring that negotiations are accompanied by concrete steps to demonstrate the State's ability to enforce its decisions. 

For Gemayel, the challenge is therefore not simply to end the latest round of fighting but to prevent Lebanon from returning to the conditions that have repeatedly allowed armed conflict and competing centers of power to take hold.

"Lebanon cannot keep postponing the decisions that determine its future," he said. "The goal must be a State that protects its people, controls its entire territory and speaks with one national voice."