The President of the Republic, Joseph Aoun, indicated that “one of the duties of mayors and municipal councils is to serve their villages and cities, and we hope that conditions will arise to put administrative decentralization on the path to implementation after the war led to the obstruction of many issues.”  President Aoun added before the delegation of the municipalities of Keserwan Al-Futuh District: “What Lebanon has suffered over 50 years of mismanagement, corruption, and successive wars cannot end overnight, and we are working today to strengthen the role of the state in various issues,” pointing out that “the goal of the negotiations in Washington is to restore the state to its existence, so that the Lebanese do not remain subordinate to anyone, whether through a guardianship authority or through someone negotiating on our behalf. We are decision-makers and Lebanon is a sovereign state and a country with its own entity.” Its capabilities and its people, which have always contributed to the renaissance of many countries, can today contribute to the reconstruction and renaissance of their country.” He continued: “It is forbidden to return to the era of guardianships, whatever they may be, and we welcome the assistance of any country, but there is a big difference between assistance and interference in Lebanese internal affairs for the benefit of any country at the expense of the Lebanese interest, which we do not accept. There are many countries whose assistance we welcome, from the Gulf countries to European countries and others, but our condition is not to deal with our internal affairs with the aim of achieving these countries’ own interests.” He concluded: “I took the decision to negotiate and will continue with it until the end because Lebanon is a founding member of the United Nations and has its own entity and sovereignty, and based on my conviction that wars do not achieve any result except losses in which everyone shares.”