BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri called on Hezbollah Tuesday to begin steps to surrender its arms to Lebanese authorities in order to relieve the Lebanese people of the danger of violence.

He also vowed to prevent any Sunni-Shiite strife as a result of the 11-month-old unrest in Syria.

Hariri warned that Hezbollah’s refusal to hand over the four party members indicted in the 2005 killing of his father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, would implicate the entire party.The speech by Hariri, who was speaking from Paris via satellite, was transmitted on a giant screen at the Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure center during a March 14 rally held to commemorate the seventh anniversary of his father’s killing.

Hariri told viewers that he assumed responsibility for supporting the popular uprising in Syria that demanded the ouster of President Bashar Assad.

“We reiterate the call on Hezbollah to start organizing its weapons to put them at the disposal of the state and relieve Lebanon and all Lebanese of the danger of violence, and relieve the state of the danger of collapse. Let Hezbollah and all Lebanese work for the triumph of the state and for Lebanon to remain a pioneer among Arabs in the Arab Spring,” Hariri said, drawing cheers from the audience, which included former President Amin Gemayel and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, as well as lawmakers from Hariri’s Future bloc and the opposition March 14 coalition.

Addressing the rally, Gemayel said the March 14 movement that had led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon in April 2005 had inspired the Arab peoples to fight for freedom.

Criticizing Hezbollah’s arms, Gemayel said: “Is it logical to support the Arab peoples’ bid to end the domination of their regimes’ arms while we keep Lebanon’s people under the authority of [Hezbollah’s] arms?”

Geagea called for the departure of Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s Cabinet, saying it was heading in a direction contrary to the normal democratic course in the region. “It is a government of scandals, reeking of gasoil and electricity deals and the tragedy of [administrative] appointments,” he said. “This government is in a state of disarray. Only one thing is required: its departure.”

A letter read at the rally from the Syrian National Council, the restive country’s main opposition group, promised to establish the best ties between Syria and Lebanon once the Assad regime had been changed.

“The Assad regime will ultimately collapse and Syria will have the best relations with Lebanon, relations based on brotherly ties but not based on slogans that the regime had adopted,” said the letter which was read by Faris Soueid, coordinator of the March 14 General Secretariat.

Hariri, who could not attend the rally because he was recovering from surgery after suffering multiple fractures in his leg during a skiing accident in France last month, underlined the need for the state to have monopoly over the use of arms.

“Israel is our enemy and a danger to us all which we should all face. Let us all defend our country and win within the confines of the Lebanese state. But when the weapons, under the pretext of fighting Israel, become a weapon to fight each other and eliminate the state, then it only serves Israel and no one but Israel,” he said. “Frankly, we say that the state, to be a state, must have the monopoly on weapons because this means it has the monopoly on power, on preserving individual and national security, on adopting laws and applying them, on implementing justice. Distributing the monopoly of state power to groups condemns Lebanon to a life of violence, and the state to withering.”

Hariri, who promised to return to Lebanon soon, said the state was the guarantor for all sects in Lebanon.

“We in Lebanon are brought together and are protected by one project: the state. Our project, and destiny, is the state, the state, the state,” he said.

Hezbollah has consistently rejected all calls to disarm, arguing that its arsenal, which includes tens of thousands of missiles, is needed to defend Lebanon against a possible Israeli attack.

Hariri called on Hezbollah to reconsider its hostile stance on the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is trying to uncover his father’s killers, by handing over the four party members accused of involvement in the massive suicide truck bombing that killed the former premier and 22 others on Feb. 14, 2005. Hezbollah, which has dismissed the STL as “an American-Israeli court,” has vowed never to turn over the four suspects. “The course of justice in the case of the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and his companions has reached a point of no return. This course will definitely lead to uncovering the perpetrators and the accused and establish the rules that protect Lebanon from the series of political assassinations. The attempts to evade international justice will be useless,” Hariri said.

“This should be understood by the Lebanese government and the official parties concerned with cooperating and coordinating with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Just as I emphasize the bonds of brotherhood that bind us with all the Lebanese, and from my position of responsibility toward the blood of the martyrs who gave their lives for Lebanon’s freedom and independence, I call on Hezbollah’s leadership to adopt a new approach in dealing with the STL because insisting on protecting the accused will not cancel the indictments,” he added.

Hariri warned that Hezbollah’s failure to surrender the four suspects to the STL would implicate the party in the assassination. “Hezbollah’s insistence on refusing to hand in the accused can generalize the accusation in the assassination of Rafik Hariri. Hezbollah’s leadership should not fall in this,” he said.

There was no immediate response from Hezbollah but the party’s leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah is expected to respond to Hariri’s remarks in a speech Thursday.

While taking the credit for supporting Syrian protesters who are demanding Assad’s removal, Hariri vowed to prevent any Sunni-Shiite strife as a result of the possible collapse of the regime in Syria. “Today, I, Saad Rafik Hariri, assume before you the responsibility of expressing solidarity with the Syrian people and supporting their right to establish a democratic regime. I also announce before you my willingness to assume full responsibility in preventing strife between the Lebanese in general, and Sunni-Shiite strife in Lebanon in particular,” he said.

Hariri said Lebanon stood at “a new political turning point” as a result of two major events: the Arab Spring and the beginning of the countdown to the end of one-party rule in Syria, as well as the spring of justice in Lebanon and the announcement of the indictments in Hariri’s killing and the trial in absentia of the accused.

Hariri said he was confident of the victory of the Syrian people, stressing that he was ready to cooperate with the Syrian National Council seeking to oust Assad.

“The great picture that the heroic Syrian people are drawing will sooner or later bring the real end of this era and its symbols. Hopefully, the Syrian people will triumph despite the horror of the massacres and the Syrian regime will inevitably fall,” Hariri said. “We are living a moment of historic transition from one era to another. The establishment of a pluralistic democratic system in Syria will give great immunity to the Lebanese democratic experience.”

“The victory of the Syrian people, in the battle for democracy and national dignity, draws a straight and balanced line for the bilateral relations between the two countries and promotes them practically and effectively to the level of real privileged relations between two brothers and neighboring countries that cooperate in the framework of the twinning democracies rather than the stronger one bullying the weaker one or the larger one mistreating the smaller one.

Hariri assured the Lebanese by saying that his Future Movement would not exploit any possible regime change in Syria to consolidate its power in Lebanon at the expense of other sects.

“Today, and because the Syrian revolution will inevitably triumph, they are trying to scare the Lebanese from its implications. To the Christians in Lebanon, they say their Sunni brothers will feel a surplus of power coming from Syria and they will move toward extremism. To those we say: ‘We are the movement of moderation, coexistence, participation and pluralism. We are the people of Taif, and full parity between Muslims and Christians in Lebanon ... whatever happens in Syria, we are the movement of freedom of belief and religious practice and freedom of thought and expression, and individual and public freedoms. We are the movement of independence, sovereignty and democracy,’” Hariri said.