ASIA/LEBANON - Support of the Greek Melchite Episcopate for "Lebanese neutrality"

Friday, 12 March 2021 middle east oriental churches geopolitics economy confessionalism sectaniarism

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Raboué (Agenzia Fides) - The Bishops of the Greek-Melkite Catholic Church have also launched an appeal aimed at keeping Lebanon away from regional conflicts, agreeing with the many appeals expressed in this regard by the Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai, who for months has been emphasizing for months the need to define and preserve Lebanon's position of neutrality in relation to the axes of power which clash in the context of regional conflicts.
In recent weeks, he has also insisted on the opportunity to convene an international conference under the aegis of the United Nations dedicated to the Lebanese question.
At the end of their last meeting, which took place on Wednesday 10 March in Raboué, in the Lebanese patriarchal seat, under the presidency of Patriarch Youssef Absi (in the photo), the Melkite Bishops released a document which underlines the need to speed up the procedure for forming a new government after seven months of institutional stalemate and a socio-economic crisis that increasingly presents itself as a real national collapse. In the text, the Bishops question, without naming names, those responsible for the chaos which fueled the institutional crisis for reasons "of a confessional nature far from any national interest". Faced with a record depreciation of the Lebanese currency, the Bishops in particular ask for urgent measures to put an end to the soaring of the American dollar on the black market and to punish those responsible for this phenomenon.
The last Lebanese government in office, that of Prime Minister Hassan Diab, resigned after the protests following the explosions of August 4 in the port of Beirut. Saad Hariri, Sunni leader of the Avenir party was tasked with forming a new government on October 22, but since then he has not yet succeeded in setting up a new cabinet, in particular because of institutional tensions between the Prime Minister and the Head of State around the list of ministers who should make up the government. (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 12/3/2021)