The Guardians of the Cedars Party has asserted that its policy about Palestinians in Lebanon is based on prohibiting their settlement in the country rather than urging every Lebanese to kill a Palestinian. "The official slogan of the Guardians of the Cedars is that no Palestinian should remain on Lebanese soil," said a party statement carried by An Nahar on Friday.

"The slogan that every Lebanese should kill a Palestinian is from the civil war legacy and does not represent the Party's convictions," the statement said. "There was no mention of it whatsoever at the latest news conference. It was purposely inserted to create confusion."

The statement was a response to the outraged reaction of Premier Seniora to the remarks made by three senior activists of the Guardians of the Cedars at a news conference they held on Tuesday, which was seen by the local media as an attempt by Etienne Saqr to win a place at Lebanon's political spectrum after Syria's ouster from the country.

The three activists who held the news conference have since been arrested in charges of provoking sectarian and racist dissention. They are Journalist and Writer Habib Younis, Attorney Naji Audeh and Writer Joseph Touk. Younes and Touk had been arrested many times in the nineties on account of their opinions and Younes was convicted by the military court and served a prison sentence. Younes was an associate editor of Al Hayat newspaper.

The Party's statement recalled that the Guardians of the Cedars had rejected the 1989 Taef Accord from the first minute and has unwaveringly advocated Lebanon's withdrawal from the Arab League.

The statement classified the three arrests as an infringement to the freedom of expression in Lebanon, demanding the immediate release of the detainees along with an apology for the offense they were subjected to.

"If the freedom of opinion and expression is still prohibited in Lebanon like it was during the Syrian occupation, what then has changed after the liberation and the 14th of March," the statement protested.