The Guardians of the Cedars Party issued the following weekly communiqué:

Thanks to the Army for this great victory because Lebanon was in dire need for it in order to overcome the complexes of inferiority, incompetence, weakness and irresolution that have stifled it throughout the past decades.

Thanks to the Army because it was able, in the midst of difficult political circumstances and in spite of limited logistics capabilities, to crush an army of professional terrorists that the most powerful armies equipped with the most advanced weapons have been unable to defeat. The Lebanese Army has thus become an example to be emulated in courage, fearlessness and superior combat skills.

And thanks to the Army because it has gave back to the State its lost prestige and to the people their missing pride and their humiliated dignity, and to the desperate Lebanese a dose of hope they have longer for many years.

Thanks to the Army’s loyal martyrs and its disabled and wounded soldiers who raced for martyrdom and with their pure blood wrote Lebanon’s modern history. They indeed have breathed new life into the country for the rise of a new State that is respected by people and of which its own people can be proud.

Thanks to our great people who rose up in sincere spontaneity, from Al-Naqura in the south to the Great River in the north to honor its heroic Army and celebrate with it this great national occasion. In this, our people have proven once again that they are one, and that the appearances of sectarian division are foreign to them and are only of the politicians’ making. So blessed be the hands that waved to the Army and sprinkled its hero soldiers with rice and flowers as a token of loyalty, love and appreciation.

Thanks to the Security Forces who hunted the terrorists and uncovered their sabotage networks, and who captured their sleeper and active cells. They were the watchful eye protecting the country.

Thanks also to the Lebanese Red Cross for the many sacrifices it offered and the efforts it exerted in rescuing the wounded and transporting them to the hospitals. Indeed, they were the unknown soldiers of this battle.

A word of gratitude goes also to the Lebanese media, the journalists, photographers and reporters who accompanied these events and reported on them to the public reliably and honestly. They contributed in their own way to achieve this magnificent accomplishment and deservedly earned the title of the “Fourth Power”.

A nation that has an army like the Army of Lebanon truly deserves to live.

Lebanon, at your service
Abu Arz
September 7, 2007