The Saudi ambassador to Beirut, Walid Bukhari (l), in Bkerki with the Maronite patriarch Bechara Rai. (Credit: NNA Archive)
BEIRUT — On Tuesday, the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon, Walid Bukhari, met with Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai in Bkerki.
For weeks now, Rai has been insisting on the need to organize an international conference, under the leadership of the UN, to deal with the socioeconomic and political crises in Lebanon.
After his interview with the head of the Maronite Church, the Saudi diplomat left Bkerki without making a statement.
Lebanon is currently experiencing a double executive vacancy; Parliament has been unable to elect a successor to Michel Aoun, whose term ended Oct. 31, while the government of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati remains in caretaker status.
Given the double vacancy, Rai is becoming increasingly insistent on asking for help from the international community.
According to Ziad al-Sayegh, executive director of the Civic Influence Hub, Rai's objective is to achieve the full application of the Taif Agreement, which ended Lebanon's civil war in 1990 but of which several clauses remain a dead letter.
This would realign UN Resolutions 1559, 1680 and 1701, all of which converge on a single objective: to empower a Lebanese state with sovereignty over the whole country and a monopoly on the right to bear arms.