Al-Rahi Says National Dialogue Must be Sponsored by U.N.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Saturday commented on President Michel Aoun’s latest call for national dialogue.

“We laud the promising preliminary step that was taken by the President, the Prime Minister and the Interior Minister to set the date of the parliamentary elections and sign the decree of organizing them,” al-Rahi said in his New Year’s Day sermon.

He added that “should there be good intentions, the remaining period would be enough to revive governmental work, finish talks with international financial institutions, control the border, repair ties with Gulf nations topped by KSA, and to rectify Lebanon’s position.”

Lebanon would then “move from alignment to neutrality and from the policy of axes to the policy of balance,” a-Rahi said.

“This is how Lebanon would provide the appropriate atmosphere to launch in the future a national dialogue sponsored by the U.N., as part of an international conference that would give dialogue a U.N. guarantee and an executive mechanism,” the patriarch added.

He explained that “the domestic dialogues, which we had always welcomed and supported, remained without implementation, and some participating parties disavowed them.”

“What also necessitates an international conference is that some aspects of the Lebanese crisis are related to regional and international issues, such as the fate of Palestinian refugees, the return of displaced Syrians and the settling of the border and security disputes with Israel,” the patriarch went on to say.