Berri Calls al-Rahi as AMAL Delegation Visits Bkirki

Speaker Nabih Berri on Sunday telephoned Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi to offer Christmas greetings as a delegation from his AMAL Movement visited Bkirki for talks with the patriarch, state-run National News Agency said.

“In the name of Imam Moussa al-Sadr, the movement's leadership and its chief, Speaker Nabih Berri, we came to the patriarchal seat to offer seasons greetings,” AMAL's central cultural officer Sheikh Hassan Abdullah said from Bkirki.

He described the election of a new president and the formation of a new government as promising developments for Lebanon.

The delegation also comprised the head of AMAL's Mount Lebanon department, Mohammed Dagher, and Mount Lebanon's cultural officer Sheikh Bassam al-Itawi.

“We hope the government will win the vote of confidence in parliament and that state institutions in Lebanon will stabilize through the approval of an electoral law based on proportional representation, which would meet the aspirations of the Lebanese and give everyone the right to vote and be represented,” Abdullah added.

Ties between Berri and al-Rahi had witnessed some tensions prior to the election of President Michel Aoun and the formation of the new government.

Al-Rahi had criticized Berri's call for a so-called package deal that precedes the presidential election and he later criticized some parties' insistence on certain ministerial portfolios after Berri and the Marada Movement refused to give up the finance and public works portfolios.