Al-Rahi Expected to Meet with Hariri in Rome over Presidential Polls
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi is scheduled to travel to Rome on Thursday to attend several religious ceremonies and is expected to meet with al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, al-Joumhouria daily reported.
The newspaper said that al-Rahi will attend a ceremony on Saturday night on the centenary of the establishment of Saint Maroun church in Rome. President Michel Suleiman will also participate in the event.
The patriarch will attend on Sunday the canonization ceremony in St. Peter's for Pope John Paul II and his Italian predecessor John XXIII.
He will later head to France where he will meet with the Lebanese community at the Roman Catholic pilgrimage site of Lourdes.
Al-Joumhouria said that al-Rahi and Hariri held a long telephone conversation on Sunday night.
Their discussions focused on the presidential elections and the need to elect a head of state within the constitutional deadline.
According to the newspaper, al-Rahi and Hariri could meet in Rome on Sunday.
It quoted Bkirki sources as expressing their “extreme discontent” with the lack of quorum caused by the withdrawal of the majority of March 8 lawmakers from parliament after voting in the polls.
They described it as an evasion of an agreement reached in Bkirki, in which the different Christian parliamentary blocs vowed to guarantee a quorum in all the election rounds and not only the first.
The parliament will now hold a second vote on April 30, in which the winning candidate will need only a simple majority of 65 votes.
An Nahar daily said a meeting that was scheduled to be held in Bkirki between the top Maronite leaders was postponed due to al-Rahi's trip which will last until May 6.
G.K.
H.K.
24 April 2014, 08:14
23
Your Eminence; your actions do not contribute to the election of a strong Christian president. You are never clear on any issue and your most recent comments that no March 8 or March 14 candidate should be president underlines your inclination for weakening the presidency. What some of Aoun's MPs did yesterday by mentioning the names of past victims of the civil war as their candidates is shameful and you should admonish them for doing so. How does Jumblatt feels if the Christians held a press conference and announced the candidacy of the Druze leader that will replace Jumblatt?! I believe your eminence you should speak out about this too!
24 April 2014, 08:17
24
Your Grace I am surprised and bewildered that you are surprised by the actions of aoun and co. I thought it was common knowledge that what is agreed upon for the good of the country and what is actually practiced for self preservation are always two conflicting things these have become aouns trademark.
24 April 2014, 08:50
32
As I said before
Rahi stay out of politics It is not your forte
24 April 2014, 12:55
10
Your Eminence, why don't you just table a couple of names and make everyone understand that we must chose one? You know what to do, so why keep calling people all the time? Yes, make contacts, but at the end of the day, stamp your fist on the table and make your presence felt, simple.
24 April 2014, 20:04
00
FT, got the point indeed, at least Sfeir was not selling milk and blankets, just threw a whiff in drift mode.
24 April 2014, 15:00
12
Biggest enemies of lebanese christians aren't takfiris, assads, hizbos or palestinians. But fellow lebanese christians...
24 April 2014, 17:02
00
cedre so sad but even sadder that its 1000% true. reading such hatred from flamethrower thread after thread shows hows we Christians of Lebanon are indeed a self destructive people. Sadly we never learnt a thing from history. The saying "Those that live in glass houses should not throw stones" should be rectified by all before spewing such biased hatred.... Flamethrower you seriously need some counciling my dear... Lebanon will never move forward with such hateful persons as you... People like you belong is past history... Go seriously seek some help as you are too hateful and blindly biased...
