President of the Republic Joseph Aoun affirmed during a dinner honoring President Aoun and the accompanying Lebanese delegation, attended by a number of members of Congress and officials in the US administration, that Lebanon cannot be safe or unified except when it is one state with one army that protects all Lebanese without discrimination. Aoun stressed that the Lebanese model deserves protection, not for the sake of Lebanon alone, but for the sake of the entire region, because it is based on the same foundations on which the United States was built. Regarding Hezbollah’s weapons, Aoun considered that their removal was possible if there was seriousness in addressing the causes, noting that this requires removing the Israeli occupation, and the Lebanese army assuming full control of the lands, in addition to launching a reconstruction program managed by the Lebanese state alone.