By Hussein Dakroub
Friday, March 11, 2011

BEIRUT: The March 14 coalition launched Thursday its political program which called for putting an end to non-state weapons and the supremacy of Hezbollah’s arms over national and political life in Lebanon.
It stressed that the state should have the sole monopoly over the use of weapons and defending Lebanon against any Israeli attack, in a move apparently aimed at denying Hezbollah the freedom to use its arsenal at will.

Approved during a meeting at the Bristol Hotel of the coalition’s leaders and lawmakers, including caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the program upheld the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) in the face of a fierce campaign by Hezbollah and its March 8 allies to try to abolish it.

The program, viewed by Tripoli MP Mohammad Kabbara as the coalition’s “road map” to deal with the problems of the next stage, including the divisive issue of Hezbollah’s weapons, came three days ahead of a mass rally planned by the March 14 groups to commemorate the sixth anniversary of their movement in Downtown Beirut.

There was no immediate comment from the March 8 camp on the March 14 coalition’s program.
Taking a direct swipe at Hezbollah, which fought Israeli occupation forces in south Lebanon from 1982 until 2000, the document rejected the argument that defending Lebanon against a possible Israeli attack was the responsibility of one party.

It called for “defending Lebanon’s threatened sovereignty by confining this mission to the state alone throughout the country, including the Palestinian weapons in and outside the camps.”
“Therefore, the tutelage of [Hezbollah’s] arms over the political and social life in Lebanon must end. The heresy that Lebanon is protected by one party must end,” it said.

“We uphold the state sovereignty over all its territory and the need for rallying around the state to work for the liberation of the remaining occupied land,” the program said. “We uphold the resolutions of international legitimacy which support Lebanon’s sovereignty, independence and justice. We will not accept that the equation of living in security and peace in exchange for abandoning freedom, justice and the truth to be imposed on our people.”

Entitled “In Defense of Lebanon for the sake of Freedom, Justice and Democracy,” the program was read to reporters by Chouf MP Marwan Hamade, who split from Druze leader Walid Jumblatt’s parliamentary bloc.
A smiling and seemingly relaxed Hariri, flanked by key politicians from the March 14 coalition, sat behind a huge red banner that reads: “Sovereignty 2011 – No to Arms Tutelage.”

Hariri’s Future Movement and its allies in the March 14 coalition have been mobilizing their supporters for a heavy turnout at Sunday’s rally celebrating the anniversary of the movement launched on March 14, 2005, one month after the assassination of Hariri’s father, former Prime Minister Rafik, to defend the country’s freedom, sovereignty and independence and call for a Syrian troop withdrawal.

The rally is intended as a show of force as the political confrontation between the March 14 coalition and the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance heats up ahead of the STL’s indictment into Rafik Hariri’s assassination. The STL has been at the root of tension between the two camps for months, threatening to destabilize the country, especially if some Hezbollah members are implicated in the assassination, as widely expected.

The program reiterated March 14 group’s support for the STL, saying they will adopt whatever is issued by the tribunal in order “to stop the cycle of killings and achieve real stability in the country.”

The Bristol meeting came against the backdrop of a fierce campaign launched by Hariri and his March 14 allies against Hezbollah’s weapons, calling for putting the party’s arsenal under state control.
The program warned that Lebanon faced “serious dangers” threatening its very existence, entity and the future of its citizens.

“Lebanon faces the danger of again losing its independence and returning to sectarian and confessional divisions which will facilitate all forms of tutelage when the Arab region is breaking out from the prisons of tyranny,” it said, referring to the current wave of regional popular uprisings against authoritarian regimes.

“Lebanon faces the danger of its democracy being muzzled and its [ruling] system falling, with the use of arms, into the grip of one party and one speech,” the document said. It added that Lebanon also faced the danger of being dragged into an external axis, a reference to Syria and Iran.
“Confronting these dangers is the responsibility of all of us, both Christians and Muslims, residents and expatriates,” the program said.

The March 14 parties reiterated their commitment to the principles outlined in the Lebanese Constitution and the 1989 Arab-brokered Taif Accord, particularly Lebanon’s sovereignty, independence, unity of its people, territorial integrity, Arabism, its democratic parliamentary system and commitment to the principle of equal power-sharing between Christians and Muslims. They rejected any division of the country or settlement of Palestinians.
The March 14 coalition promised to achieve the program’s objectives through a peaceful, democratic and civil struggle in Lebanon and abroad.

Warning of the gravity of the current situation, the program called on all rival factions to combine their efforts toward achieving consensus on the national principles and restoring unity among the Lebanese. “Attempts at supremacy are doomed to failure. Let’s all of us work for defending Lebanon and maintaining the freedom of its citizens, democracy and building a civil state,” it said.

The program finally called on the Lebanese to gather at 10 a.m. Sunday in “Freedom Square” where “the voice of the people will be stronger than the rattle of arms.”
Kataeb (Phalange) Party leader Amin Gemayel said the message from the meeting was unity of the March 14 parties. “We will continue the struggle until the end to protect the country’s sovereignty and the rise of the state,” Gemayel told The Daily Star after the meeting.

He blamed Hezbollah’s weapons for the country’s political and economic problems. “The state cannot rise with the presence of Hezbollah’s weapons. The weapons are preventing stability, national reconciliation, the formation of a national unity government, prosperity, development,” he said. Gemayel said that after the March 14 coalition decided not to participate in Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati’s government, “matters are heading toward a unilateral authority.” “A unilateral government will take the country to a big stalemate,” he added.

Speaking to The Daily Star, Zahle MP Oqab Saqr of Hariri’s parliamentary Future bloc said the message from the meeting was “a rejection of strife and consecration of national unity by rejecting the domination of arms in national life.”