Press Release

Lebanon is living through one of the most dangerous periods in its history and is undergoing existential challenges, in a tormented Middle East, due to two major factors:

1. The "refusal camp", led by Hezbollah, exercises its grip on the Lebanese state and takes unilateral decisions of war or peace. This camp has opened a front of support for Hamas against the advice of a vast majority of Lebanese, ignoring the Constitution and the elementary rules of living together. By its unilateral decisions, it is causing Lebanon to suffer colossal losses, both human and material, in the service of its cross-border alliances. At the same time, the presidential vacancy persists, the Parliament is inoperative, the government has resigned and the municipal elections are postponed for the 3rd time in a row.

This state of affairs leaves the field free to criminal abuses of any kind, murders with political connotations, armed robberies and other assaults. Justice is subject to the interests of the militia-mafia alliance, and major crimes are never solved, like the dozens of murders suffered by the sovereigntist camp for decades, and the blocking of the judicial investigation concerning the explosion of the Beirut port of August 2020.

2. The presence of Syrian displaced persons in Lebanon, whose number now exceeds 40% of the Lebanese population, which represents a demographic and security risk, as well as an unbearable environmental and economic burden. Social tensions can explode at any time, while 35% of the prison population is Syrian. We remind you that Lebanese law limits the presence of illegal aliens to 6 months renewable once, Lebanon is not a land of asylum. The Lebanese government must conduct firm diplomacy with international organizations in order to solve this problem, by organizing either the transfer of displaced persons to third countries, or their return to Syria where large areas are now safe. Hoping for the consent of the Syrian regime, suspected of carrying out a policy of ethnic cleansing on its people, is chimerical.

Alarmed by these existential dangers that threaten Lebanon, we ask the French administration to insist on the full and complete application of international resolutions, in particular n°1559, 1680 and 1701. These resolutions allow the Lebanese to regain their national sovereignty, to disarm the militias and thus return power to the Lebanese state.

Experience proves that no economic reform is possible as long as the sovereignty of the state remains usurped by a militia that is part of a cross-border project. The return of investors obviously requires peace and respect for the institutions.

Lebanese-French Coordination Committee (CCLF)

ULCM France

Paris - Beirut 05/08/2024

CCLF : Member Associations/France

Change Lebanon (CL)

Lebanese Collective of France (CLF)

Lebanese Forum in Europe (FLE)

Movement of Lebanese Citizens of the World (MCLM)

Our New Lebanon - France (ONL -France)

Consulting Organization/ Lebanon :

Civic Influence Hub (CIH)

Co-signatory

Lebanese World Cultural Union, France (ULCM)