World Lebanese Cultural Union
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Statement from the World Lebanese Cultural Union
Title of the Phase: Liberating Lebanon from Iranian Occupation
The World Lebanese Cultural Union (WLCU), while closely monitoring the situation in Lebanon and the significant threats facing its people and sovereignty, expresses its solidarity with our compatriots in the homeland and with the expatriate community. In light of recent events, it is important to announce the following:
- We express our full support and unlimited backing for His Excellency President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, and the Lebanese government, regarding the decision to prohibit the military and security activities of Hezbollah, after this party violated the decision to restrict arms and turned against the state’s authority over the decision of war and peace.
- We expect the Parliament to take a historic position similar to that of the executive authority to protect Lebanon, which is being recklessly thrown into the ongoing war.
- Hezbollah has never been licensed. Throughout its history of inciting wars against Lebanon, it has proven to be a tool in the hands of the Iranian Supreme Leader and the Revolutionary Guard. We consider the launch of “support” rockets, in condemnation of the killing of Khamenei, to be a deadly disregard for Lebanon and its people, even for the environment from which its residents emerged in their nightclothes, lying on the streets, searching for refuge—an humiliation of the Lebanese people that can no longer be tolerated.
- Prohibiting Hezbollah’s military and security activities is not enough; it should also be politically banned. It is unacceptable for a Lebanese party to operate under decisions made outside the borders. We see its ideological, educational, and economic activities as a more severe danger to Lebanon than its military threat. The Lebanese state must cleanse its military, security, customs, judicial, and all ministries of the influence of this outlaw party, and immediately cease dealing with it in secret and through advisors. Instead, it should begin direct and public dealings with its officials while adhering to applicable laws. There is no place for the state within a state any longer, as it has burdened Lebanon and the Lebanese people with organized crime and wars, and has been, and still is, a conduit for corruption, destroying the economy and causing security and financial crises that established a parallel economy, not to mention the assassinations that threatened its opponents and facilitated its control over Lebanon, allowing the Revolutionary Guard to occupy Lebanon, ultimately providing justifications for Israel to occupy parts of its territory by giving it international legal grounds for its ongoing aggressions.
- We salute the brave Lebanese Army and, constitutionally, consider it the only entity authorized to bear arms alongside the official security forces. We commend the executive authority for assigning the army the task of restricting arms from all illegal holders after decades of submission to the forces of reality and the absence of political decision-making. We urge the military institution, which enjoys the support of all Lebanese, both residing and expatriates, to implement the political decision to remove illegal weapons from the hands of their holders and from all organizations that operate outside the law, whether Lebanese or non-Lebanese.
- We condemn the Iranian assaults on Arab capitals and cities, from Saudi Arabia, through the Gulf states, and Jordan. While we denounce these brutal attacks, we salute the peoples of this region who embrace our finest sons and daughters, who extend their hands to assist their families during the most challenging financial and economic crisis in Lebanon, caused by corruption colluding with Hezbollah’s weapons.
- The World Lebanese Cultural Union (WLCU), in collaboration with its allies from organizations in Lebanon and abroad, will undertake actions in decision-making countries and will send a message to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, as a member of the Economic and Social Council of the international organization. We will make the title of this phase “Liberating Lebanon from Iranian Occupation,” which exposes Lebanese territory to a potential expansion of Israeli occupation.
May God protect Lebanon and the Lebanese people!
Ferris Wehbe
World President of the WLCU
