Metn – Free Patriotic Movement Chief, MP Gebran Bassil, confirmed in a speech he delivered today following a Mass service dedicated to the October 13th commemoration held in the Church of Saint Elias – Antelias, that ‘October 13, 1990 is a date deeply engraved in our memories and conscience, and has shaped our political personality to the point that we consider ourselves the sons of October 13, the sons of a school that perceived the end as a beginning, so that the end of military resistance became the beginning of political resistance…’ ‘We are the sons of a school that transformed the failure of a people’s will in the face of an international deal, into a national consciousness that established the priority of national sovereignty and expressed it in 2005 in the face of guardianship, and in 2006 in the face of occupation,’ Bassil went on, adding, ‘A school led by a general who believed that there is no homeland without sovereignty, and when liberation was accomplished, he moved to the battle for liberation, out of his conviction that there is no state without a citizen free from clientelism, dependency, and corruption.’ Touching on the recent developments in occupied Palestine, Bassil said: ‘As we commemorate our martyrs on October 13, the Palestinian people are resisting in October the criminality that Israel has practiced against them since the year 1948, when it caused them a real catastrophe that made them battle ever since with everything they possessed, even stones, until weapons were available to them, turning the scales and reversing the catastrophe against those who caused it….” He added, “We are concerned, morally and existentially, with advocating for the truth on our borders. The Palestinian people have a right to their land, and to have their own state to which they can return, so that they do not remain displaced refugees, and their right is above all to have their human dignity respected.” Bassil continued to stress that “there is no peace without Shebaa and the Golan, without the return of Palestinian refugees, without the return of displaced Syrians, without a free, independent Palestinian state with full rights, and without Jerusalem open to all people and all religions…’ He emphasized that Lebanon cannot but be a supporter of Palestine, yet it also has the right to be its own advocate, confirming that ‘it is natural for some of us to work to support Palestine, but it is incomprehensible to open our country to unsecured arenas.’ Referring to the Syrian displacement crisis prevailing in Lebanon, Bassil stressed that ‘the massive displacement that our country is witnessing exceeds all capacity to absorb it by geography, resources, or demographics, and no country in the world accepts it, as it exceeds every record number in proportion to its size and population density…This random, organized displacement violates all international conventions and laws, and it also contradicts all Lebanese laws.’ Addressing the FPM youth, he continued: ‘I say to the youth of the Free Patriotic Movement that God has willed that you live the battle against corruption and confronting displacement, just as we lived the battle to restore freedom, sovereignty and independence…’ Highlighting the connection between the economy and freedom, sovereignty and independence, Bassil questioned ‘how Lebanon’s economy can survive without reforms, regional developmental decentralization, expanded financial administration, and without a trust fund that preserves state property and facilities, secures resources and job opportunities, and achieves proper and effective services?’ ‘This is a struggle that we must bear, with or without a presidency, before or after it,’ he asserted.

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon