In his homily for Sunday Mass, Card. Raï attacks the "new proposals and excessive conditions" linked to the birth of the new executive. Hopes for "positive results" from today’s summit between the president and prime minister in charge. Criticism, without directly naming, of Hezbollah which continues to "paralyze" political and institutional life.
Beirut (AsiaNews / Agencies) - A harsh attack on "the new proposals and excessive conditions" linked to the formation of the new government and the hope of "positive results" in the meeting scheduled today between President Michel Aoun and the Prime Minister in charge Saad Hariri.
In what has become a weekly custom, the Maronite patriarch Card. Beshara Raï considered the political and institutional crisis in the Land of the Cedars during his Sunday Mass homily, saying that he hopes that the president and prime minister designate can "belie those who bet on their failure".
“Let them flip the table on all obstructors and set up a wall separating between Lebanon’s interest and the interests of political groups and nations. Enough with coming up with new proposals and crippling conditions aimed at obstruction and procrastination!” the patriarch went on to say, in an apparent jab at Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
He added that the formation of a government that would be “only for Lebanon and the Lebanese would not take more than 24 hours.” “But if some want to burden the new government with the conflicts of the region, the games of nations, the presidential race, the change of the system and the control of authority and the country, that will increase the rift between the people and the rulers and will lead to chaos,” al-Rahi warned. “Chaos is not merciful on anyone, starting by those who start it,” he cautioned.
The words of the Maronite patriarch come in an increasingly tense context: in recent days the leader of Hezbollah, Nasrallah, has "advised" Hariri to form a "technical-political" government, in which the parties can boast the last word in allocation of portfolios. A very different line from that invoked by the demonstrators in the square and by the international community - and by Card. Raï - who wish the birth of an executive of independent specialists and experts, disconnected from the interests and opposing forces of the various parties and factions.
In this context, the Maronite patriarch then expressed the hope that today's face to face between the president and the prime minister in charge could give "positive results" and lead to the birth of a team of "independent technocrats" after "a long wait and the total collapse of the country ". Finally, he invited Lebanon's "Arab and Western friendly nations" to "show solidarity" and to provide "material and human" aid to the Lebanese people threatened by famine and victim of the ruling political class. "We must not link the aid given to the population - he concluded - with the formation of the government, the presidency or [the supply of] illegal weapons."