Press Release for immediate distribution

July 13/2006
Toronto Canada

No Peace, No Security and No Stability in Lebanon Without Implementing UN Resolution 1559

It is extremely regrettable that the fundamentalist Hezbollah, without so much as any accountability or supervision, domestically, regionally or internationally, be allowed to hijack the decision-making of the Lebanese State, violate its constitution and its laws, and recklessly expropriate the responsibilities of its government in which it is represented by a number of ministers.

Yesterday Wednesday, this armed organization has single-handedly taken the decision of attacking Israel militarily across the border between the two countries without the knowledge of the Lebanese government, as the latter confirmed in a statement issued yesterday after an emergency meeting of its ministers chaired by the President of the Republic.

Hezbollah has kidnapped a number of Israeli soldiers, violating in so doing the Blue Line delineated between the two countries by the United Nations, as well as all pertaining UN resolutions and the UN Charter, and greatly jeopardizing the Middle East Peace Process.

This fundamentalist organization, with organic, ideological, financial, logistical, organizational, and decision-making ties to the Iran of the Mullahs and to Baathist Syria, has rejected or turned down all legal and constitutional exit strategies that were
offered to it to surrender its weapons to the State and lift its hegemony over the mini-states it created in the South, in Beirut, and in the Bekaa Valley.

At times, Hezbollah has linked the fate of its weapons to a question of honor; at other times it represented its weapons as a religious obligation similar to the fasting; and yet again at other times, it has linked its weapons to what it calls the “enmity” to Israel and the containment of the Israeli danger and threats, according to Hezbollah.

We, the undersigned activists in the countries of the Lebanese Diaspora, and on behalf of the organizations and clubs we represent, strongly condemn the warmongering practices of Hezbollah that violate all Lebanese laws and international resolutions. We also
denounce the dereliction of the Lebanese government in not fully exercising its responsibilities and its surrendering of those responsibilities to Hezbollah.

We call on the international Community to support our Lebanese people who are badly suffering on daily basis in every aspect of their lives because of the irresponsible conduct inflicted on them by the armed Lebanese and non Lebanese militias.

We demand that the international community, represented by the UN and its Security Council, exert all kinds of pressures and use all means at its disposal, including the use of the UN military contingent already present for decades in South Lebanon, to implement the remaining clauses of UN resolution 1559 and all related resolutions calling for the exercise by the Lebanese State of its authority over its entire territory with its own armed forces, the disarming of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias, the deployment of the Lebanese Army along the border with Israel, the delineation of the border with Syria and the establishment of diplomatic relations between Lebanon and Syria, and abiding by all international resolutions.

Signatures of the above release
Dr. Joseph Hitti/ New England Americans For Lebanon (NEAL)
Colonel Charbel Barakat/World Lebanese Cultural Union (WLCU)-Canadian Chapter
Elias Bejjani/Lebanese Canadian Coordinating Council (LCCC)
Atef Harb/World US Maronite Union (WMUSAU)
John Hajjar/National Council for the Cedars’ Revolution (WCRC)
Ghabi Galo/Aramic Democratic Organization (Ardo)
Chebl Zoghbi/Ex Lebanese Forces Veteran Fighter in Diaspora (LFVF)
Camille Bhersafi/Canadian Lebanese Human Rights Federation (CLHRF)
Walid Haddad/Canadian Phoenician Community Services Club (CPCSC)
Khalil Kaekati/Phoenician Club of Mississauga (PCOM)
Roni Doumit/Solidarity organization for Middle Ease Christians (SOMAC)
Charbel Elias/Canadian Lebanese Christian Heritage Club (CLCHC)
George Chaya/WCLU Media Chairman for Spanish America