10 November 1976

The Guardians of the Cedars refuse the Cairo Accord in form and in content, for several legal, political and military reasons, in particular:

1– The Cairo Accord was imposed upon the Lebanese people after a ministerial crisis that lasted seven months brought by a conjoined Palestinian, leftist and Arabic pressure, in addition to the cowardly Lebanese politicians in power and their short-sightedness;

2– The impossibility of the implementation of the Cairo Accord for the following reasons:

– Refusal of the Palestinians to abide by it for well-known aims and objectives;
– Contradiction between its clauses, namely, the combination of antipodes: an anarchy presented as a revolution, and a regime presented as Lebanese sovereignty;
– Collapse of the Accord by prescription and the refusal to abide by its articles on the part of the Palestinians.

3– The text of the Accord includes obligations contrary to the higher national interests, now and in the future, and if it were to be implemented along with its indexes, it will be a source of conflict, not of accord. Briefly, the implementation of the Accord can only lead to one of the two possibilities:

– The nation would have to relinquish its rights and sovereignty;
– Or confront the Palestinians and return them to their natural status of temporary refugees on our soil, as is their position in Jordan, Syria and the other Arab countries.

The Lebanese never considered themselves, now or in the future, as brothers to renegade Palestinians, who performed genocide operations against the Lebanese and the destruction of their institutions and property...

Moreover, the Lebanese people refuse to have their future dependent on that of the Palestinian people, and insist that the Lebanese cause is independent of the Palestinian cause, which must be considered separately from any other cause...

For all these reasons, we reject the Cairo Accord and its indexes, and any other accord emanating from it or based upon it. We call upon the Lebanese people to consider the above and to foresee the results of the persistence in the perverse politics that can only return us to the point of departure and additional warfare and destruction.

Therefore:

We hereby declare that the Arab Force is here to deter the Palestinian aggressor, not the aggressed Lebanese who is the landlord fighting to preserve his dignity.

The Lebanese liberated territory that fought during 18 months to prevent the Palestinians and their mercenaries from occupying it will not allow the Arab troops to occupy them now. Our martyrs who gave their lives protecting it will not accept the exchanging a Palestinian occupation for an Arab one.

Gentlemen:
– In conformity with our principles drawn from the Lebanese authenticity;
– In conformity with our valiant resistance that preserved Lebanon and his legitimacy, which we wish to remain genuinely Lebanese, not subjugated to any foreign or extrinsic power;
– In conformity with all this, and with respect to the memory of our valiant martyrs, we have decided, my fellow combatants and myself, to retire to a region of our noble mountain, calling upon the Lebanese people to support us and toil with us to prevent the foreign occupation.

I further assure you, gentlemen that this Mountain that remained free from the invaders who attacked Lebanon successively during the past 6000 years, will not allow foreign troops to step on its sacred soil.

The Lebanese Resistance whose standard we raise once more, calls upon the Lebanese, wherever and whoever they may be, not separated by class or creed, but united by an authentic Lebanese pride, to reach a historical and fateful decision equal to their aspiration of a Lebanon sovereign, free, honorable and giant...

At the service of Lebanon,

Abu Arz,

10/11/1976.