President Aoun on the 39th anniversary of the martyrdom of President Rashid Karami: His steadfast national positions were neither shaken by the winds of strife nor tempted by the allurements of division.

On the thirty-ninth anniversary of the martyrdom of President Rashid Karami on June 1, 1987, President of the Republic General Joseph Aoun said: "On this day, thirty-nine years ago, the hand of treachery assassinated one of Lebanon’s strongest statesmen and one of the most devoted to his country. President Rashid Karami was martyred on the altar of the state to whose service he had devoted his life.

He added: "President Rashid Karami was not merely a prime minister who held that office time and again; he was a symbol of a fundamental idea that still lives in the conscience of every true Lebanese: the idea that Lebanon is greater than its sects, nobler than its narrow calculations, and too precious to be bargained over. The martyred president was known for his steadfast national positions, which were neither shaken by the winds of strife nor tempted by the allurements of division. He believed in one united Lebanon and refused to see the North, the South, the Mountain, or the Bekaa as anything but faces of one homeland that has room for all. He held a firm conviction that the state is the sole protector of coexistence, and that institutions are the only guarantee for safeguarding the entity."

He said: "In these difficult days of Lebanon’s history, as it faces a fierce and condemned Israeli aggression, and as we move with burdened steps toward restoring the state and rebuilding its institutions, we feel the weight of the absence of such statesmen, who carried the concerns of the الوطن more than they carried the concerns of their positions. How much Lebanon today lacks a voice like his, rising above the noise, and a hand like his, extended to reunite rather than tear apart.