Lebanese Forces' leader Samir Geagea stressed that building the state amid the presence of the Defiance camp in the country is impossible, accusing Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement of seeking to "torpedo" the municipal and mayoral elections.

"As long as the Defiance camp led by Hezbollah and the FPM exists, the state will not be built, and the proof is the municipal elections' issue, which they want to torpedo, because they realized, after the 2022 legislative polls, that the popular mood was no longer on their side," Geagea said in an interview.

"I affirm that we do not want to separate the south from the rest of the country," he said, calling to organize the municipal elections in the south after the end of the border fighting.

Touching on the Syrian displaced ordeal, Geagea said "the issue is demographical, economic, and social, but before everything, it is an existential problem."

"We cannot stand idly by as the country collapses," he underlined, vowing not to back down on the LF battle to repatriate the Syrian displaced.