The Guardians of the Cedars Party issued the following communiqué:

It goes without saying that the first condition for a successful dialogue is the availability of goodwill with the participants to the dialogue. When goodwill is available, then the need for a mediator or mediation is moot, with or without a round or rectangular table, and whether they meet in Lebanon, France or even in China.

Which is why repeated calls for dialogue and urging the parties to the conflict to come to an understanding have become redundant and boring from overuse and over-consumption, particularly since everyone knows that any dialogue between these people is doomed to fail because their intentions are ill-willed and the higher interest of Lebanon is not in their lexicon. People’s pains are the last on their list of priorities and concerns, and everyone asks: “What good can we expect from people infected with the plague of politics, who sold their country to foreigners, emptied it of its youth, and made it into an open arena for all manner of conflicts and strife, and transformed its institutions into a den of thieves and a fertile ground for corruption and the corrupters?

Speaking of corruption, we note the death sentence carried out against a Chinese Minister convicted of corruption, and wish that Chinese law be applied just once at the hands of an honest and fair judiciary to see how many politicians in Lebanon will remain alive.

Elsewhere, the delay in a decisive conclusion to the Nahr Al-Bared battle, and in spite of the daily heroism of the Lebanese army, means that there are other Palestinian factions fighting alongside the Fatah Al-Islam faction. The government, if it exists at all, must promptly deal with the question of disarming the Palestinians irrespective of which organization or faction, as a first step to controlling their presence on our soil and in anticipation of deporting them out of the country.

That the Army has been exemplary in fulfilling its national duties, and the rallying of the Lebanese behind it in this unprecedented manner, make the Army Commander the only person qualified to fill any constitutional vacuum which may occur if the politicians fail to reach an agreement over the upcoming presidential election.

Lebanon, at your service
Abu Arz
July 20, 2007