Berri Welcomes al-Rahi’s Visit to Border Towns, Says ‘Land Needs his Blessing’
Speaker Nabih Berri welcomed Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s scheduled visit to the southern border towns in the upcoming days, An Nahar newspaper reported on Wednesday.
“These kind of rare visitors don’t need an invitation, he (Patriarch al-Rahi) will be among his pastors and family,” Berri told the daily.
He said: “We wouldn’t be exaggerating if we said that the south needs his Eminence to bless the land that fought Israel and its soil was mixed with the blood of Christians and Muslims.”
Earlier this month, al-Rahi’s statements from France created controversy in Lebanon when he said: “Syrian President Bashar Assad must be given a chance because he is implementing reforms in Syria.”
He also called on the international community to force the implementation of resolutions issued by the U.N. Security Council in order to strip Hizbullah of excuses to possess arms.
However, the patriarch later asserted that his statements “were taken out of context and therefore they were misinterpreted.”
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