Lebanese Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq declared on Sunday that the country’s main problem is the illegal possession of arms.
He noted that state decision-making processes are bound by these weapons, as well as “fatal sectarianism.”
Remaining problems in Lebanon can be solved, he said, while revealing that a campaign targeting these weapons will be launched after the May 6 parliamentary elections.
Mashnouq explained that this campaign will demand the establishment of a national defense strategy to have these arms come under the control of the state.
Commenting on the security situation in Lebanon, he remarked that regional and international circumstances helped the country maintain this stability.
He said that British Home Secretary Amber Rudd had pointed out to him during a recent meeting that for the past three years, Beirut has not been a victim of any major security attack. European capitals, such as London, Paris and Brussels, on the other hand, have been victim to such assaults.
Mashnouq attributed the calm to the strength of Lebanon’s security agencies, especially the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau, “which is performing immense work.”
The latest of its achievements, said the minister, was its success in freeing a child, less than nine hours after she was kidnapped in the Bekaa region.
Rudd had paid a visit to Lebanon last week where she held talks with Mashnouq and a number of officials.
