• Joint statement says two leaders expressed commitment to the principle that arms should be exclusively ‘in the hands of the Lebanese state’

BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas said Wednesday that weapons should be under Lebanese state control, meeting in Beirut to discuss disarming Palestinian refugee camps in the country.

A joint statement released by the Lebanese presidency said the two leaders share the “belief that the era of weapons outside Lebanese state control has ended,” adding that both had expressed commitment to the principle that arms should be exclusively “in the hands of the Lebanese state.”

AFP