Lebanese President Michel Aoun has said that the Mountain reconciliation “remains strong”, adding that a deadly shootout, which took place in the Druze area of Aley, should not be repeated.
“What happened [in Aley] must never be repeated, and we must preserve the freedom of the Lebanese people, and especially those who represent them, to travel through different regions,” a Baabda Palace statement quoted Aoun as saying.
He stressed that the Mountain reconciliation of 2001, which allowed Christians who had been displaced during the 1975-1990 Civil War to return to the area, “is still strong.”
Aoun called for the Mountain areas to remain stable and free from sectarian strife, so that Lebanon does not become a “country of [sectarian] cantons.”
The president said that decisions taken during an emergency meeting of the Higher Defense Council on Sunday night will be implemented.
Two members of the Lebanese Democratic Party accompanying Minister of State for Refugee Affairs Saleh Gharib, who is an ally of LDP chief Talal Arsal, were killed in the Aley shootout.
Rami Salman was buried on Friday while Samer Abi Farraj was laid to rest on Saturday.
Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party, whose supporters had gathered in the area in an attempt to prevent Aoun’s son-in-law Free Patriotic Movement leader Gebran Bassil from passing through, insist that Gharib’s bodyguards fired the first shot.
