Maronite Patriarch, Bechara Rai. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai on Sunday welcomed the Lebanon-Israel framework agreement signed in Washington, urging leaders to spare the country the "specter of war."
"We welcome with hope any agreement or initiative that will end the cycle of violence and open the path to stability. We hope that the efforts made in recent days between Lebanon, the United States and Israel will bear fruit and lead to a peace that preserves human dignity, safeguards national sovereignty, and keeps the specter of war away from our people," Rai said during his Sunday homily at the patriarchal summer residence in Dimane, northern Lebanon.
"Lebanon must not be the price of a regional or international agreement, nor become a stage for conflicts," the prelate warned, calling to preserve "coexistence, dialogue and peace."
"Many voices around the world have reaffirmed the importance of Lebanon and its unique role, stressing that preserving a free, sovereign and independent Lebanon also preserves a free and active Christian presence in the East. This is not a matter concerning only Christians, but in fact the mission of all Lebanon, for this nation has been and will remain a space of freedom, an oasis of coexistence and a model of interreligious and intercultural dialogue," he added.
On June 26, Lebanon and Israel reached a framework agreement aimed at ending the war between Hezbollah and the Jewish state, which continues to occupy a "buffer zone" of more than 600 square kilometers in southern Lebanon, stretching up to ten kilometers deep.
The text, which also provides for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from two "pilot zones" in southern Lebanon, was welcomed by opponents of Hezbollah and categorically rejected by the party and the Amal movement.
