Lara Saade, head of the Kataeb's Legislative and Public Policy Department, presented the party’s vision for neutrality as a constitutional project to rebuild the Lebanese State during an international conference on “Positive Neutrality: From Principle to Lebanese Reality,” held at the Saint Joseph University's François Debbané Campus of Social Sciences.

The conference brought together local and international experts, diplomats, academics, and civil society leaders. for in-depth discussions on global neutrality models, Lebanese political approaches to the concept, and constructive national engagement in Lebanon.

In her address, Saade said the Kataeb Party’s neutrality proposal is the product of years of work and is rooted in a detailed analysis of Lebanon’s political system and its structural vulnerabilities, as well as lessons drawn from successful neutral states. Lebanon’s crises, she argued, are fundamentally structural and therefore require structural solutions, adding that neutrality cannot remain a circumstantial political option but must instead be anchored as a permanent constitutional principle.

Saade traced the country’s long history of neutrality-related initiatives, beginning with the 1943 National Pact and its “No East, No West” formula, moving through a series of informal political understandings, and culminating in the 2012 Baabda Declaration. All of these frameworks, she said, collapsed the moment regional tensions spiked, largely because Lebanon lacked a binding constitutional mechanism capable of shielding neutrality from external pressure.

She outlined the constitutional amendment proposed by the Kataeb Party, submitted jointly with a group of independent MPs, seeking to enshrine the principle of neutrality in the preamble of Lebanon’s Constitution.

Under the proposal, the Constitution’s preamble would be amended to include the following clause: “Lebanon is a neutral State that abides by the principle of neutrality in all regional and international conflicts, without this contradicting its legitimate right to defend its sovereignty and territory, or its obligations under international legitimacy and international humanitarian law.”

The proposal, she noted, is built on four core principles: refraining from involvement in regional and international conflicts; ensuring that all weapons are exclusively in the hands of the State; adopting an independent foreign policy grounded solely in Lebanon’s national interest; and engaging positively with the international community through diplomacy, mediation, and humanitarian efforts.

Saade insisted that this framework addresses the roots of Lebanon’s crisis rather than its symptoms, arguing that enshrining neutrality in the Constitution would provide the legal foundation required to craft an independent foreign policy and to define Lebanon’s place in both the regional and international systems, outside the axes and conflicts that have repeatedly destabilized the country.

She also sought to correct what she described as widespread misconceptions about neutrality, stressing that the concept does not undermine Lebanon’s support for just causes, nor does it imply a militarily weakened State. On the contrary, she said, neutrality assumes the existence of a strong State capable of protecting its borders and asserting its sovereignty.

Saade described neutrality as a strategic national choice essential to safeguarding sovereignty, rebuilding State institutions, and giving Lebanese citizens a chance to live in a stable country removed from the logic of perpetual conflict. She emphasized that neutrality must be accompanied by a comprehensive legal and institutional process, including complementary legislation, a review of military and security agreements, government and parliamentary oversight mechanisms, and a diplomatic initiative aimed at securing international recognition and support for Lebanon’s neutrality.

She noted that the current government's ministerial statement reaffirmed the principle that all weapons must remain under the exclusive authority of the State, calling it a first step in the right direction. The next step, she said, must be the launch of a process to collect illegal weapons, which she deemed as a prerequisite for building a State capable of adopting and effectively implementing the principle of neutrality.

The conference was organized by the Lebanese Center for Strategic Planning (LeCLIPS), in partnership with Geneva Center for Neutrality, and The Political Science Institute - USJ University.