Samir Geagea, leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces party, spoke to a journalist during an interview at his residence in Maarab, north of Beirut, on May 20, 2022. -- AFP file
The leader of a significant Christian party in Lebanon, which is currently facing political deadlock, emphasized on Saturday that electing a new president is crucial for achieving a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Lebanon has been without a head of state for nearly two years, amidst a severe economic crisis and now, as Israel intensively bombards the country, claiming it targets Hezbollah sites. Hezbollah allies and their opponents, including the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) party, have been at an impasse over the presidency, unable to reach a consensus.
"The foremost urgency is a ceasefire to halt the catastrophe our people are suffering," stated Samir Geagea, who leads the LF and the largest Christian bloc in parliament. "In the absence of serious international initiatives, our sole option to achieve a ceasefire is by electing a president," Geagea, who is aligned with the United States and Saudi Arabia, said during a press conference. The Iran-backed Hezbollah has unilaterally initiated what it calls a "support front" for Gaza from Lebanon, launching cross-border attacks into Israel following Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which ignited war in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier last month, Geagea accused Hezbollah of dragging Lebanon into a war with Israel, "as if there were no state". Nearly a year of cross-border skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah escalated into full-scale war on September 23, with Israel heavily bombarding southern and eastern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut, asserting it targets Hezbollah sites. Geagea called for "a credible president who clearly commits to implementing international resolutions, particularly resolutions 1559, 1680, and 1701, in their entirety". Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1680 called for the disarmament of all non-state groups. Adopted in 2006, Resolution 1701 led to a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war that year and stipulated that the Lebanese army and peacekeepers should be the only armed forces deployed in the country's south.
Hezbollah remains the sole group that refused to relinquish its weapons post-Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, doing so under the guise of "resistance" against Israel. The group was established after Israel besieged Beirut in 1982 and has since evolved into a formidable domestic political entity, though critics accuse it of functioning as a "state within a state". Geagea asserted that a president would need to ensure that "strategic decisions are the exclusive domain of the state".
