ASIA/LEBANON - Patriarch Rai: Tripoli will not give in to the spiral of sectarian violence

Bkerké (Agenzia Fides) - The city of Tripoli should not become "a victim of political conflicts", and its inhabitants do not have to follow "the path of violence, which has never led to positive results". This is what the Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites Boutros Bechara Rai said about the sectarian violence that is devastating the coastal city of northern Lebanon, to a delegation of residents from Tripoli who were received in audience by the Head of the Maronite Church on Thursday morning, January 23.
The new series of bloody clashes between Alawites and Sunnis in Lebanon's second largest city started on Friday, January 17, and has already caused at least 7 deaths and 60 wounded. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 23/01/2014)