Al-Rahi Urges Aoun, Miqati to 'Take Decisive Step' to Defuse Gulf Row

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday noted that “the crisis with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in particular and the Arab Gulf nations in general has multiple and accumulating reasons.”

“It can harm the interest of Lebanon and the interests of the Lebanese,” al-Rahi warned in his Sunday Mass sermon.

“That’s why we are looking forward for the President (Michel Aoun), Premier (Najib Miqati) and everyone concerned with the issue to take a decisive step to defuse the crisis that might blow up the Lebanese-Gulf relations,” the patriarch urged.

He noted that he is calling for this “decisive stance in defense of Lebanon and the Lebanese who live inside the country and abroad.”

Separately, al-Rahi said the judiciary must continue its investigations into the port blast case and the Ain al-Remmaneh incidents “without any bargaining between the two cases and without any bartering, settlement, politicization or sectarianization.”