ASIA/LEBANON – Maronite Patriarch says: the return of Hariri is a positive fact for the Lebanese nation

Friday, 20 February 2015

ASIA/LEBANON – Maronite Patriarch says: the return of Hariri is a positive fact for the Lebanese nation
Beirut (Agenzia Fides) – The return to Beirut of former prime minister Saad Hariri has been welcomed by Maronite Patriarch Bachara Boutros Rai as a positive fact for the Lebanese nation. “We need to have him here with us in Lebanon, so we may remain Lebanon” the Primate of the Maronite Catholic Church affirmed in statements reported by the Lebanese press, as he arrived home from Rome, where he took part in the Concistory.
The former premier, at present leader of the Movement of the Future, Sunni Party, referred to as Future, returned to Beirut last week to participate in a memorial ceremony for the 10th anniversary of the murder of his father Rafik Hariri, assassinated on 14 February 2005 while he too was Prime Minister. In recent years the young Hariri has lived abroad in Paris and Ryad, after Saudi and USA intelligence warned him of threats to his life.
Patriarch Rai, speaking with the Lebanese press, said the failure to elect a President – a role which falls by law to a Maronite Christian and the absence of a designation has held the political life of the country at a stand still since May last year - represents a “national matter” and responsibility for this institutional paralysis should not be attributed only to division among Lebanon’s Christian political leaders. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 20/2/2015).


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