Daily Star - Gemayel: Opposition taking country to 'collective suicide' - September 20, 2010

BEIRUT: The head of the Phalange Party, Amine Gemayel, accused opposition forces Sunday of taking the country toward “collective suicide.”

Speaking to supporters in the Bekaa Valley town of Zahle, Gemayel said Lebanon’s unity and sovereignty were at stake, adding that all attacks on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) to try suspects into the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri, “will not change the course of justice but will only harm Lebanon.”

The former Lebanese president arrived in Zahle for a two-day visit on Saturday. The goal of the visit was to meet Phalange party officials and supporters.

Gemayel said that rather than uniting to face external threats, some Lebanese groups were “settling personal accounts, which is a dangerous matter.”

Gemayel said when his son, slain Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, was killed in 2006, he had not held “anyone responsible because I [did] not want the [killer] to remain unknown.”

Gemayel said he respected Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s decision not to make accusations in his father’s killing, adding that only the STL was entitled to issue accusations.

Earlier this month, Hariri told Saudi-daily Ash-Sharq al-Awsat he had made a mistake when he accused Syria of standing behind his father’s assassination.

Gemayel stressed that Lebanon “must hold onto Arab consensus,” adding that a “separate peace deal with Israel must not be signed, “whatever the pressures.”

He said that “a tangible progress, although insufficient, has been achieved on the level of Lebanese-Syrian ties.” – The Daily Star