Rai in Tripoli: There will be no peace in the region until peace is achieved in Lebanon

Maronite Church leader Bechara Rai said Saturday that "peace is the permanent and best choice" during a visit to Tripoli (North Lebanon) on the occasion of the closure of the jubilee year.

"Peace is the permanent and best choice. And Tripoli will remain a city of peace despite all the challenges," Rai emphasized, according to remarks reported by the National News Agency (NNA). He also called for "rooting the culture of peace and coexistence.” The prelate was later received at Dar al-Fatwa by Tripoli's mufti Mohammad Imam, in the presence, among others, of former Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

“Peace is the permanent choice”

Earlier in the day, during his visit to Tripoli on the occasion of the closing of the Jubilee Year, Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Rai also stated that “peace is the permanent and best choice. And Tripoli will remain a city of peace despite all challenges.” He called for “entrenching a culture of peace and coexistence.”

The patriarch also said that “Lebanon is a diverse and plural country. This diversity is its fundamental wealth, as the Pope emphasized during his visit to Lebanon.” The three-day visit of Pope Leo XIV, held under the banner of peace, took place at a time when Lebanon continues to face Israeli threats of a full-scale war, due to Hezbollah’s refusal to hand over its weapons to the state.

During his visit, Patriarch Raï also praised “Islamo-Christian relations” in Tripoli, describing the city as having “become a distinctive model of coexistence, to the point of being regarded as Lebanon’s second capital, with all the vitality and unifying activities it embodies.”