Al-Rahi Slams Ad-Diyar Report, Denies he Visited Anjar
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi slammed on Saturday a report published in ad-Diya newspaper, describing it as a “false” report aimed at misleading the public opinion.
Al-Rahi wondered during a meeting with Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun how a newspaper would “publish such a false report?”
Ad-Diya newspaper published on Saturday a report about a French book entitled “The Arabian Tsunami, Le Tsunami Arabe” stating the reasons behind al-Rahi’s opposing position on the Arab spring in general and the Syrian revolution in particular.
Author Antoine Basbous, who is from Lebanese origins, wrote in two pages about the relations that linked the patriarch with the late Syrian Interior Minister General Ghazi Kanaan, where Kanaan had planted espionage devices at the Archbishop of Jbeil.
Al-Rahi said that he held a meeting with Kanaan at the Archbishop of Jbeil, however “I informed Patriarch (Nasrallah)Sfeir, the bishops and then President, PM and Speaker about the nature of his visit.”
The Author wrote that before the patriarch headed to Paris on an official visit, Syria summoned over a bishop close to the patriarch to Damascus, where the authorities allegedly asked him to warn al-Rahi against any negative statements in Paris.
According to the book, the relations between al-Rahi and Kanaan go back to 1998 when then Patriarch Sfeir began his battle against the Syrian domination over Lebanon, where Kanaan tried to break into Bkirki by using three bishops: Emile Saade, Youssef Beshara and Beshara al-Rahi.
The author states that bishops “ Emile Saade and Youssef Beshara revealed to Patriarch Sfeir the scheme of Kanaan, but al-Rahi didn’t stop meeting Kanaan.”
Al-Rahi denied that he had visited Anjar, noting that a “person is accused when he’s innocent. I’m not targeting the media, but the newspaper that published this false report.”
He added: “How can we read a newspaper like this after today.”
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