The Jerusaem Post reports: Lebanese President Michel Aoun has dismissed claims that Hezbollah should be disarmed as long as Israel “fails to respect” UN resolutions and international law.
The terrorist organization ensures Lebanon’s “resistance against the State of Israel,” he said in an interview published Friday by French daily Le Figaro, in which he defended his close relations with Hezbollah, which played a major role in his election as president in 2016. After securing the backing of Hezbollah, 82-year-old Aoun filled a power vacuum left by a deadlock that paralyzed Lebanese politics for two-and-a-half-years, following the departure of former president Michel Suleiman.
“This wasn’t an alliance [with Hezbollah] but rather an agreement,” said Aoun. “Thanks to the agreement, we have been able to avoid civil war in Lebanon. I sincerely believe that I have saved the Lebanese state. [As a result], Hezbollah has altered its political stance and has respected Lebanese sovereignty,” Aoun told Le Figaro. “Nasrallah has said as much in an address: Hezbollah has renounced its project to install an ‘Islamic Republic’ in Lebanon.”
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