Jean Christophe Ploquin, 14/04/2021 at 18:54
The Maronite Patriarch called for an international conference on Lebanon on Wednesday, April 14, to reaffirm the country’s sovereignty over external interference and force an internal policy agreement.
More than eight months after the explosion that ravaged the port of Beirut, the political situation is still completely blocked in Lebanon. No government has been formed since then. ′′ Lebanon is like a plane that has its passengers on board but no pilot in charge “, summarizes Cardinal Béchara Ra aï, Patriarch of the Maronite Church.
Wishing to alert authorities and international opinion about his country’s ′′ collapse Cardinal Ra aï spoke on Wednesday, April 14th via video conference with journalists of the Association de la press fran françaiseaise. In particular, it calls on the United Nations to convene an international conference on Lebanon aimed at restoring Lebanese sovereignty and political independence, on the basis of UN Security Council resolutions 1559 and 1701 adopted respectively in 2004 and in 2006. For him, indeed, his country’s crisis is not only internal. It also comes from multiple regional and international interferences.
The Maronite patriarch wants France, in particular, to support this approach. Expressing gratitude for President Emmanuel Macron’s commitment to the Lebanese issue, manifested in particular on two trips to Beirut in August 2020, he hopes that France and the United States – with the new Biden administration – will agree on a common strategy and will shoot the same way.
Cardinal Béchara Ra aï insists on another crucial point in his eyes: the return of Syrian refugees to their homes. They are about 1,5 million to flee the civil war that broke out ten years ago. In addition to some 500 Palestinian refugees who have lived in camps for several decades. In total, this represents two million people for a Lebanese population of four million. A heavy burden while half the Lebanese live at or below the poverty line.
For the leader of the Maronite Church, the international community must ′′ separate ′′ the question of the return of Syrian refugees to their homes and the search for a political settlement in Syria, which will take a long time. He clearly rejected the idea that Lebanese nationality should be given to these communities, because the demographic imbalance would be too much.
The Lebanese political system is indeed built on the balance between Christian and Muslim communities. Almost all Syrian exiles and Palestinian refugees are Sunni Muslims. Either they go home or they need to be welcomed somewhere else in the world. The earth is vast! ′′ He summed up.
The exodus of the Lebanese
Cardinal Ra aï has not hidden his concern about the exodus which at the same time drains Lebanese, all confounded confessions. ′′ Doctors leave hospitals, young people leave their diplomas in their pockets soon “, he’s worried. A crisis situation caused by ′′ politicians who are stubborn in defending their special interests “, he says.
The Maronite patriarch puts President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri responsible for the formation of a new government. Both represent opposing political camps and ′′ can’t even get around the same table “, he says.
The Shia Party Hezbollah also has a responsibility in the blockade. ′′ There is an alignment between Hezbollah, some political parties
