Lebanon’s Top Christian Cleric Calls for State Control Over Weapons
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Salma Hossein
- . August 14, 2023
- . Update: August 14, 2023 8:38 pm
Recent violence between Christian peasants and the heavily armed Hezbollah militia took a dark turn in Lebanon’s protracted quest for security. The deadly conflict highlights the urgent necessity for tighter state regulation of weaponry. In a significant move, Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai of Lebanon’s Christian community stressed the value of coming together under the protection of the state to solve the problem of weapons proliferation. The incident has highlighted the ongoing dispute over Hezbollah’s armament and its effects on Lebanon’s precarious stability, further exacerbating the nation’s deep-seated political and economic issues.
A Hezbollah truck carrying ammunition toppled in the village of Kahaleh, close to Beirut, setting off the confrontation. Hezbollah fighters and Christian locals engaged in a deadly gunfight as the crisis worsened. Tragically, a Hezbollah member and a local Christian perished in the clash. Since the hostilities in Beirut two years ago, this is the deadliest encounter between the Hezbollah party, which Iran and the opposition support.
Following the horrific event, Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai, the foremost Christian religious figure in Lebanon, preached to the people. Regarding the use of guns in particular, Rai stressed the need for all parties and groups within the nation to come together under the aegis of the state. Hezbollah’s powerful armament has long been a source of dispute, and his appeal for “one land, one state, one legitimate army, one authority, and one sovereignty” impliedly alluded to it.
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The most potent and essential organisation in Lebanon is Hezbollah, established in 1982 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. With its opponents charging it with undermining the central state and sustaining a state-within-a-state dynamic, the organisation’s weaponry has escalated national tensions for years. The conflict in Kahaleh serves as a vivid warning of the risks posed by the unrestricted spread of weapons.
The difficulties Lebanon faces go beyond the country’s current security issues. One of the most unstable periods since the civil war that lasted from 1975 to 1990, the nation has been struggling with a severe financial collapse for the past four years. The economic catastrophe that has exacerbated the country’s problems directly results from years of political corruption and wasteful spending.
Hezbollah and Christian villagers recently engaged in a violent confrontation in Lebanon, underscoring the necessity for state control over weaponry. The patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai’s appeal for people to band together under the protection of the state shows the mounting worry over Hezbollah’s armament and its effects on the nation’s stability. For a more secure and peaceful future, more robust governmental control over weaponry must be pushed for as Lebanon struggles with political, economic, and security issues.
