Maronite Bishops Hope Dialogue Resolves Presidential Crisis, Urge Backing for the State

The Council of Maronite bishops welcomed on Friday the dialogue among the country's different factions, hoping that it would lead to the election of a new president, and urged the Lebanese to back the state at this critical stage.

The bishops hoped in a statement following their monthly meeting in Bkirki that “talks among the Lebanese political parties would be aimed at electing a head of state.”

They said dialogue should take the country out of its crisis.

Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal representatives have been holding talks since December to limit sectarian tension.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea and Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, who are both presidential candidates, are also expected to meet.

Despite welcoming dialogue, the bishops regretted that the country is without a president since Michel Suleiman's term expired in May last year.

“The election of a head of state has become more than a necessity because Lebanon entered a new stage in the government crisis,” said their statement.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi chaired the meeting which is usually held on the first Wednesday of each month.

But the bishops met this Friday because the patriarch had been in Rome for several weeks.

The Council lamented that social and economic conditions have worsened and security threats have increased in Lebanon.

The bishops also lauded the army and security forces for confronting terrorists and urged everyone to support them through all means.

The statement reiterated that linking Lebanon to regional axes contradicts the National Pact.

The bishops called on the Lebanese to “back the state” and drop “limited factional interests” to help the country come out of the crises engulfing the region.

They also “condemned the terrorist attack” carried out by the Islamic State extremist group against Coptic Christians in Libya.

They said “Christians are seeing the worst type of prosecution in the Orient.”

Last week, 21 Copts wearing orange jumpsuits were marched onto a Libyan beach, forced to kneel with a masked, knife-wielding militant standing behind each, and then beheaded.

G.K.

H.K.